Sonic Combat Evolved
by The Lost One '94
Summary: Everything went well with traveling through slip-space, until something happended. Now that the SPARTAN-II project is in devlopment, will humans and mobians be able to make it out of this war against the covenant? or will they all die trying?
1. Prologue

"No sir, nothing but glass on the surface." A black cat said into his earpiece "Yes sir, we'll keep looking."

The cat took a deep breath as he knelt down to feel the ground. "Certainly glass-like..." he said as a man dressed in black approached.

"So what now, Carlos?" he asked as the cat stood up

"We keep looking."

The two walked into a ruined city, the tops of some buildings were still burning. Carlos took point as he drew a M7/Caseless SMG with a suppressor. "So, you think they'll go through with another batch of SPARTAN-IIs?" he asked, giving the all-clear.

"I'll be surprised if they did, you know how expansive it is."

The two went down into a metro station, footsteps could be heard in the distance. The human drew a 99C-S2 sniper rifle looking down one of the long tunnels.

"They might, I already took a look at the roster. Some notable people on there." Carlos jumped down to the platforms "By the way, see anything yet Sam?"

"Nothing yet, just a lot of noise. Sounds like a small group if you ask me."

Carlos crouched down and approached one of the four long tunnels as Sam looked down another. The cat drew a flashlight, looking around the corner. Nothing. He exhaled upon realizing he was holding his breath, and moved to the next one. Sam clicked on the thermal vision of his scope. The tunnel he looked down lit up with heat signatures.

"Carlos, over here. I make out at least 5-6 of them. Two jackals, three of the short ones and one of those split-faced aliens..I think."

"There is no 'I think' Sam, either there is or isn't an enemy patrol down there." Carlos ran quietly to the edge of the tunnel. He curved a fiber optic probe around the corner.

He looked at a small PDA, the screen showed exactly what Sam indicated. The patrol party had been walking in their direction, unaware of their presence. Carlos stood there not moving an inch as his fur and suit blended in very well with the shadows. He clicked on a personal comm to his partner.

"Okay, so you were right. Don't fire, yet. Wait until they pass by. Attach a silencer to that thing."

Sam did as told, and waited for Carlos' signal. The aliens passed the cat, one of the jackals paused for a second. It looked directly at Carlos for ten seconds, finally deciding that there was nothing there and moving on. The party stopped in the center of the large room, looking around. Carlos primed a grenade and chucked it at the aliens.

"NOW!" he yelled to his partner

The grenade detonated, taking out the grunts. Small 'pfft' noises could be heard as bullets erupted from the SMG. The jackals were down in seconds, the Elite's shield flared and faded. It roared as it withdrew an energy sword and charged at its feline attacker. Carlos' M7 was sliced in half as he was tackled to the ground. He grabbed onto the wrist that held the blade, barely keeping it away from his neck. The elite 'smiled' as it bared down on the cat.

"Sam, take the shot!" he called out to his ally

Sam had hesitated, knowing that he'd hit Carlos if he shot the elite. The sword got closer to its target with every passing second. Beads of sweat populated Sam's forehead as his breathing became heavier. The blade was now mere inches from Carlos' neck.

"SAM! IT'S NOW OR NEVER! TAKE THE SHOT!" the cat screamed, feeling the heated plasma scorch his fur.

The elite jerked forward, then collapsed on top of the cat. Carlos felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. He rolled the elites' carcass off of himself, laying on the concrete. Sam soon appeared in front of him, extending a hand.

"Don't do that again, okay? That was way to close." Carlos commented

They began to search the bodies, not finding much. The elites' body however, yielded a strange crystal fragment.

"Well, what do we have here?" Sam said as he picked it up

"Something ONI and the SS would be interested in." Carlos commented, looking at it. "Well we better get what we can, and run before more show up."

"Captain Greene, this is recon 2. We found something we believe important to the enemy." Carlos said into his comm link

"Copy that, a pelican is inbound to your location. Report topside on the double." the comm became silent after that

"So, who were on Halsey's list this time?" Sam asked as they backtracked through the building

"Some of Mobius' greatest heroes, including one Miles Prower." Carlos said, as he stepped out of the building and onto the dropship.

"Can't wait to see what results Section Three can get out of them." Sam commented, taking one last look at the burning planet

**I don't think the original quite cut it for the story, and i was going to replace it eventually. So, hopefully this is a better version.**


	2. What's going on?

Alright, heres chapter 2, kinda took me a half hour to figure out character introductions, who goes first, which ones came next and so on. So here it is.

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Sonic: Combat Evolved

_Chapter 1_

_What's Going On?_

_-at an unknown facility_

In an underground lab, Sara had been the first of the 75 candidates to wake up. So many thoughts raced through her head, mainly the questions "_Where am I? What's going on?_" As she thought about these things, two other figures had woken up.

"Ugh, where am I?" One said while yawning.

"What? How did I get here?" the other one said.

Sara jumped, not noticing them awaken. She stared at them as they tried to figure out their surroundings. After they gave up on their efforts of trying to figure out what was going on, they noticed a black hedgehog staring at them.

"w-who are you?" one of them asked nervously

"huh? Oh, I'm Sara" She managed to say, being caught off guard. "who are you?"

"I'm Mark, Mark fox" Mark replied still being a little nervous

"And I'm Miles, but just call me Tails." Tails answered

"Nice to meet you." Sara said in a positive tone despite their current situation.

"Likewise." The two foxes said at almost the same time.

A period of silence followed as they both familiarized themselves with what each other looked like. Sara is a black hedgehog with red eyes that looked a bit intimidating, wearing blue jeans, with grey t-shirt. Mark was a red fox with one grey eye and one green eye. He was wearing a blue vest over a brown shirt that said "Stay Cool", with a pair of light blue jeans. And Tails was wearing what appeared to be an orange shirt with grey sweatpants, he also had some oil spots on his gloves for some reason. As they examined each other, some other figures began to rise out of their dreams. The first was a white furred rabbit, another was a golden colored hedgehog with some streaks of blue in his spikes, and the last to wake up was another rabbit. She looked around in a very frightened manor.

"W-where am I? How did t get here?" She said in a very frightened voice.

Tails quickly turned, instantly realizing who that voice came from.

"Cream?" Tails said turning to face her

"Tails? Is that you? How did we get here?" Cream said turning to face her two-tailed friend.

"I dunno, I just sorta woke up here. But my question is, how did you get here?" Tails responded in a deeply concerned voice.

"That beats me, I was on my way home from Amy's house, next thing I know, I'm just waking up here." Cream stated as she went to where Tails was sitting, noticing a Sara and Mark close to Tails.

"Hi," Mark said to her as she sat next to Tails, "my names Mark."

Sara was again deep in thought not really noticing much of what was going on.

"Hello, my name is Cream" she said in the calmest voice she could possibly make.

Finally making a trip back to reality, Sara saw Cream sitting next to Tails shaking in fear of what was happening. Sara was slightly concerned for her.

"Hey, are you alright?" Sara questioned

Cream, being easily startled at the moment let out a small "eek" and hid her face behind Tails. She was shivering in fear of her new environment, anything could scare her at any moment in this place.

"It's okay Cream, she won't hurt you" Tails said in a calm reassuring voice.

Cream hesitantly came out from behind Tails, to find a concerned hedgehog. She could hardly pull the words together in away of responding to Sara's question. This made introductions a little hard, and tough for the both of them. She finally was able to put some words together.

"I-I'm fine, thank you." Cream responded still a little shaken up.

"Okay, just wanted to make sure. My name is Sara by the way." Sara said, "and you are?"

Cream was still trying to take in everything that was going on, and trying to think what could possibly happen next. So, Tails decided to speak up for his frightened friend.

"This is Cream," Tails stated "she and I have been friends for a long time."

"Nice to meet you." Mark and Sara said almost at the same time.

Cream was still to scared to answer. Tails wanted to make sure if his friend was okay.

"Cream, are you…." He started but was interrupted as a door slid open.

Everyone stared at the door as a female human dressed in a white lab coat stepped in, looking at something on the clipboard she had. While doing this she occasionally looked up at the humans and mobians waking up, as soon as everyone was fully awake, she finally began to speak.

"Hello children, my name is Dr. Hasley" She said in a slightly comforting voice.

All the youngsters just stared at her with looks of confusion, and fear upon them. Dr.Hasley asked them to stand in a single-file line, the kids hesitantly obeyed and stood racked with fear as to what this person would do to them.

"Don't worry, there's nothing to be afraid of." she said trying to calm the crowd of frightened kids."Now please, follow me." Dr.Hasley said leading them out of the room.

* * *

Okay, so why are they there? or how did they get there for that matter... i'll try to get that explained in the follwing chapters, but it might take awhile. I'm having trouble coming up with where in the lab they're going. Sooo, you might wanna check in every once and awhile 


	3. Why We're here

Okay, i tried to make this as interesting as possible, if you don't like it i will try to make the other chapters more interesting, but for now here is chapter 2

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_Sonic Combat Evolved_

_Chapter 2_

_Why We're Here_

As they walked down the seemingly endless hallways, a lot of things, such as gun fire, and someone on an intercom system, as well as some conversations between some of the children following Dr. Hasley. A lot where really just asking the same question, which did get a bit old. But some just kinda got over that more quickly than others. Mark was contemplating what was going on, when a yellow hedgehog bumped into him, snapping him out of his trance-like state.

"Sorry, about that." The hedgehog apologized

"No problem." Mark replied, upon further inspection of the figure that crashed into him, something just seemed really familiar about him. Mark just needed to as him one question.

"Hey, what's your name?" Mark questioned

"Me? I'm Roy. Why?" Roy answered

"You just….seem kind of familiar, like we've met before" Mark stated "oh, my name is Mark by the way."

Roy seemed to freeze for a moment. (Thoughts) _That's Mark? Man, a few years away from each other and things certainly change. I wonder what he's been up to lately. Well…besides this whole 'waking up in lab' thing._

"Hey, are you okay?" Mark asked noticing how Roy seemed to leave reality.

"Huh? Oh, yeah I'm fine." Roy answered coming out of his thoughts.

Finally after a lot of walking, they arrived at another room, which looked like a large projection room but only had a small lit up platform.

"We're here." The doctor said bringing all attention to her.

"I guess I should explain why you all are here, or one of the A.I.s in this room could."

As soon as she said that, a small blue female figure appeared on the small platform.

"This is Cortana, one of the A.I. Constructs in this entire compound." The doctor said introducing the small hologram. "Now Cortana, please explain why these children are here."

"Yes ma'am." Cortana said accepting the order. She turned towards the group of children and began to say, "You have been brought here to take part in the SPARTEN-II project. We will make you the best we can make you, you will train under the command of the marines that have been stationed here and respond to every order or task given to you. But before we can assign your drill master, we'll have to administer some skeletal, and biological augmentations. While you are here you will also receive school education when you are not under command of the drill masters. After your training is complete, you will be dispatched into armed service and fight against the Covenant."

"Thank you, Cortana. Now children please follow me to the Augmentation Chambers." Dr. Hasley said leading the kids into another room.

The room had many capsules, one made for one of the seventy-five candidates. Each of the kids stepped into one, and was administered a small amount of knockout gas, just enough to have them sleep through the process.As soon as they fell asleep, the machines worked away at their bodies, making bones a lot stronger, faster reflexes, and farther sight ranges. When the procedure was over, the candidates stepped out of the capsules, but there were some that didn't step out. As they stepped out, they felt stronger, faster, and like they could do practically anything. They went back to the other room, they received who their drill master, roommates, and room numbers. Tails was paired with Mark, Cream was paired with Sara, and Roy was paired with a rabbit named Zack. After they got familiarized with their room settings, they all met together, and talked about how the machines had changed them. This made them feel strange, their bones, reaction timing, and just about everything about the way they felt before and after they stepped into the machine. By the time they finally accepted it, they were all tired and went to bed.

_Tails' dream:_

"Here they come!" someone shouted.

Tails turned and saw a horde of aliens charging on his position. He could barely hold his weapon straight, as soon as the large aliens came close enough, Tails heard bullets whizzing by, and shots of plasma coming at him.

"Tails! What's wrong? Open fire!" Mark yelled from a few yards away.

Tails started firing his BR55HB SR. (Battle Rifle) His shots hardly hit anything, and he was hit with enough plasma to nearly kill him. Just as another plasma shot was about to strike, a large bubble formed around him stopping the shot instantly.

"You alright?" a soft voice asked.

Tails soon realized that Cream just saved his life.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Tails replied.

"You need to be more careful, this isn't a simulation" Cream stated. "Now follow me, and shoot the ones with their shields down in the head." She said while pulling out two plasma pistols. Tails did as he was told and followed her to the others.

"Ahhh!" Tails screamed, making Mark stir in his bed. '_Was that all…just a dream? Or was it real?' _Tails thought to himself. _' I don't get it. What was that? And how did it happen? Why does this have to happen?' _So many thoughts raced through the young kitsunes' mind as he dwelled on this dream, _'could that really happen to us? to face such a terrible enemy? Why does this all have to happen?'_ Tails didn't know what to make of it, but he wouldn't forget this strange dream. _'Is that...what becomes of us in the future?' _Tails decided to discuss it with the others, but for now he just wanted to get back to sleep.

* * *

That is kind of a strange dream for a little boy to have. What exactly was going on? More to come in the following chapters. 


	4. Training the Spartans

This took me awhile for numerous reasons. Main one being not knowing how to script this. anyway, here it is. and by the way, there will be names from other series, such as Call of Duty 4.

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_Sonic Combat Evolved_

_Chapter 3_

_Training the troops…er Spartans_

"So…..you had a dream where we were all fighting the aliens?" Roy asked

"Yeah, it was strange…like it was real, the last part that I remember is being saved by Cream." Tails responded

"I think that's a bit far fetched if you ask me, but that could actually happen. Like Cortana said, we'll be in the armed service when our training is complete." Mark stated

"If we are going to be with the Marines, that means we will be fighting aliens." Sara said correcting Mark

"Umm, how exactly did I save you Tails?" Cream asked blushing a little

"Well, when you did we were in this giant bubble around us. It looked like a hologram, but nothing could pass in or out of it." Tails explained

Mark looked at a nearby clock, seeing that it was almost time to report to their drill masters.

"Well, it's almost time for our first day of training, don't wanna be late." Mark said as he walked off

"Yeah, let's meet up after we're done with our lessons." Sara suggested

"Yeah, see ya later." everyone said as they walked to their assigned drill master

_-With Mark_

"All right maggots, fall in! You will address me as Seargent Griggs." yelled Griggs "You will obey every order that I give you, and if you fail to heed my orders, severe consequences will be sure to follow. Now, state your names.!" Griggs commanded

Mark was the first to step forward and do as told. Soon after the other kids did the same.

"Alright, your training as a soldier begins now." Griggs stated "Now, FORWARD MARCH!" he then commanded

Everyone got in a single-file line and marched around the compound until they arrived at what appeared to be a shooting range.

"Here you will be trained to use weapons of mass destruction, such as a Spartan Laser, Assault Rifle, and Covenant weapons." Griggs said

As soon as Griggs finished his statement, many weapons appeared from behind the walls. The one that caught Mark's eye was the SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle, it was practically eye-candy for him.

"Now, pick your toy." Griggs said

The second that Griggs was finished saying that, Mark already grabbed the sniper rifle from where it sat. As soon as everyone had chosen their weapon, targets in the shape of Covenant units appeared everywhere.

"Hit as many targets as you can," Their drill master instructed "when there all destroyed, we'll enter a simulation of a battle with them."

Mark already started on any target he saw and shot it in their heads not missing any of them. The other kids had also got some of the targets, but not as many as Mark. As soon as all targets where destroyed, a huge light blinded everyone, as soon as it disappeared, they all seemed to be in a box canyon in the middle of nowhere.

"This is Coagulation, better known as Blood Gulch." Griggs said over an intercom system

"Here is where you'll be tested on reflex, and being able to return fire, hit the holograms before they can hit you. One shot touches you and your out. They'll appear in waves, each tougher than the last."

A few minutes later, figures started to appear in the distance, when they got close enough to see, they where huge aliens, standing 7 ft tall, and had four hinged mandibles. Once they got closer they started firing plasma, some of the kids got hit while ducking for cover and teleported to another room. Mark had already gotten to a high spot in the area, and hit the heads on each hologram. After a few shots he felt something fly past his right ear, and quickly got behind a rock.

"_Where did that come from?_" He thought to himself as he peeked his head out to see the enemy sharpshooter.

As he looked around, he saw that few of the trainees were still around, while looking at the group he saw one get hit with a purple beam. Mark visually followed the beam and saw a purple dot in the distance. "_Gotcha_" he thought to himself, he almost pulled the trigger, but his target was blown up before he could take his shot. He took a look to see who blew the shit out of his target, and saw Roy with a Rocket Launcher.

-_Roy's Position_

"YEAH! Blew the shit out of that one!" Roy exclaimed "Now on to the next one."

The second he saw a group of aliens making a run for it, he sent a rocket trailing after them. The rocket landed in the middle of them and sent them flying hundreds of feet into the air. The few remaining trainees were relived to see that there were no more aliens.

"Here comes the next group, be careful and watch out for enemy vehicles." Griggs said over the intercom

Once again, things appeared in the distance but with something big behind them. Roy used the scope on his gun to get a better look. The things behind the infantry were big and purple with large guns mounted on the back.

"What the heck is that thing?" He said thinking out loud

When the big tank looking object reached the hill, it started firing huge blasts of plasma toward the Spartans. When it struck, everything started to shake. While everyone else were busy with the enemy infantry, Roy snuck away to the side where no one would see him and launched two rockets at one of the three wraiths and killed it. Another wraith spotted him and launched a ball of plasma on him. Roy jumped out of the way, barely getting out of the blast radius. When he looked up he saw only one human spartan trainee left actually holding his own against the horde of aliens.

"_What if I could jack one of those things and use it against them? Nah wouldn't work there's a turret on the front and to many ground troops to even get close_." He thought looking out at the two remaing tanks.

He carefully examined them for an way to get one undetected, but failed to find any. As he was thinking he saw some of them laying dead on the ground, he looked up to the other ones and saw white trails of smoke hailing down on them.

"There's my opening." He said to himself and ran to capture a Wraith.

He went for the one that had the least amount of enemies around it and slammed on the protective plating above the driver's seat until it fell off. When it finally fell off, Roy felt something go by his head, barely missing him, but hitting the alien that was at the controls.

"_Man that was close. Well at least it got rid of the driver._" He thought while replacing the body with himself as the driver.

"Now to blow the rest of them up!" Roy shouted as he started to turn towards the third wraith. The Elites saw this and tried to open fire but were hit with three bullets in their faces, leaving only the wraith. Roy had a hard time finding the button to fire the gun on the back. "Dammit, where is it? It's got to be here somewhere." He finally found a button that fired the plasma mortar into the last wraith, killing it instantly

"NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" He yelled, and accidentally pressed a button that had the words "Self-Destruct" on it

A noise went off, saying "Self-Destruct mode initiated" and was counting down from ten. "Oh shit!" Roy jumped out and ran as fast as he could to the nearest rock to hide behind. KABOOM! The wraith had blown itself into tiny little pieces of scrap metal.

"That was close, hope that this training session ends, it's wearing me out." He said between breaths

"That's enough for now. But we'll try again tomorrow, now you kids can all take a break." Their Drill Master announced

Another flash of light came, but instead of being in the room he was previously in he was in a room that looked like an on office. Beside him stood the human kid that he saw earlier, and Mark holding his sniper rifle next to him. When he looked in front of him he saw Seargent Griggs standing there.

"Congratulations, I don't think I've seen anyone last long enough through the first two waves of those squid-faced bastards." He said with a smirk on his face.

"Uhh...thank you sir." Roy said in response

"Your sniping was great, but watch out for hitting friendlies, it still counts as friendly fire even if it's an accident." Griggs said turning to Mark

"Sorry sir. I will do better next time." Mark said in response

"And to hold your own against impossible odds is the most astounding thing I've seen. You have the makings of an excellent soldier in you."

"Thank you sir." the boy said

"Now, dismissed." Griggs commanded

A few steps out the door, Roy was already wonerding who the kid was. He was going to ask but the kid was already half-way down the hall.

"Well, I guess we need to put our guns back, and by the way sorry for almost hitting you." Mark said

"Yeah, but that was fun wasn't it? I mean all the whole crazy explosions and stuff right?" Roy said in the excitement of what just happend.

"Well, let's just hurry and meet with the others." Mark said slightly killing Roy's joy

"Alright fine." He said slightly depressed "_Joy kill_"

* * *

As a side note, though he was walking away Mark still heard what Sara said, and that's colorful language for a kid 


	5. Concerns

Alright, a new chapter. This one is longer than the others, two new people come to the story, and someone gets a little more brave.

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_Sonic Combat Evolved_

_Chapter 4_

_Concerns_

"Are they okay?" A hologram of a male hedgehog asked

"Yes, they all seemed to pass the first test but two had some trouble getting started." Dr. Hasley answered

"Which two?" A hologram of a female squirrel asked

"Miles 'Tails' Prower, and Cream the Rabbit. They needed some encouragement to get started, and pass the test." The scientist answered

"I hope they improve, we can't win this war without them. We need fearless warriors who will put their lives on the line at a moments notice." The hedgehog said

"They will, by the time their training is complete they will be able to carry out tasks no one else can." Dr. Hasley responded

"Well I would like to see their progress personally. I'll be coming by for a few days to over see your work Dr. Hasley." The squirrel said

"Of course ma'am." The doctor said

"I hope we can come out of this in one piece, wasn't easy taking down Dr. Eggman and his machines." The hedgehog commented

"That was trouble, this is hell. See you all later. Over and out." The squirrel said as she disappeared

"Alright, later Doc." The hedgehog said as the transmission ended

--

"You should've seen what happened in our class, it was freakn' awesome!" Roy said excitedly

"It wasn't that amazing, there were only three of us left. But it was funny seeing how you ran from that tank." Mark said laughing a bit

"I hit a self-destruct button. But where were you the entire time, huh?" Roy asked

"Up somewhere in the rocks I'm sure." Sara said

"Nope, but enough about us, how'd you guys do?" Mark asked

"Well…er Cream and I had a hard time doing it." Tails said

"What happened?" Roy asked

"Well, it started out really bad. We were lucky even to survive. I had an MA5B Assault Rifle, and I think Cream had a pistol." Tails began

"We dove for cover as soon as the first shot was fired, and moved around them when their backs were turned."

"So you guys basically snuck behind the enemy line?" Sara said

"Yeah, then we came across a big purple tank, it wasn't looking at us so Cream and I snuck up to it. I tried to hack it so the turret would self destruct, but we got spotted." Tails said

"How many spotted you guys?" Mark asked

"I don't really know…maybe 5 or 10. We got behind some rocks before the blasts got too close. I began to return fire, but Cream was too scarred to start shooting them. So, I had to keep them away." Tails finished

"That sounded like more than you bargained for." Sara commented

"I guess we got lucky." Tails said

"Kinda sounds like an opposite version of that dream you had." Mark said

"Yeah, in that Cream saved me, but today I saved her." Tails responded

Cream was still clinging to Tails after the test. She wasn't so sure she could make it through the following years of training. Tails tried his best to get her to calm down, but failed at every attempt. She was shaking the entire day, despite everyone else's attempts. When it was finally time to go to bed, she had a hard time sleeping. 'How am I going to get through all of this?' she thought to herself. She knew her friends would help her through it all, but it still seemed difficult for her. Thinking about it all she drifted off to sleep.

_-Cream's dream_

Cream found herself on the outside a building in a swamp. The rain came down a little hard, and there was a small fog. There were two other Spartans with her, one had silver armor, and the other had a golden orange color scheme.

"Hey Tails, anything new come out of that Covenant terminal yet?" The silver armored one asked

"Not yet Zack, all the transmissions basically talk about the same thing." Tails responded

Tails was constantly hacking a Covenant communication terminal and only got transmissions about something that happened prior to their arrival. They all basically talked about some small thing infecting and taking over its host. Tails kept working at it and eventually came upon a recording. Tails called Cream, and Zack over to view it with him.

(Covenant recorded service record)

ID: 298871205

Play

The recording showed fourteen Elites (other than the one recording it) in what appeared to be a war room.

"There are many forerunner artifacts there inside the structure. Your team is to go there, secure them, and bring them back." An Elite Zealot said

"Alright, move out!" The team leader said

FFW

They arrived in the same swamp, and entered the same structure that lead into the ground. They boarded an elevator and headed underground. The Elites searched all the rooms they came across, and eventually came to the last room in the compound.

"There all probably behind there." one of the Elites said

"Well, let's check it out." The leader said walking into the room

"Nope, just another empty room, if there's supposed to be artifacts here, where are they?" a red Elite asked

"Maybe we missed a room, wouldn't be the fir-" One began

"Shh, quiet! You hear that?" The leader said

A vent cover came crashing down to the floor followed by small green things, racing toward the team. They opened fire to keep them back, but some got through and turned half the groups into walking nightmares.

"Fall back! Fall back!" The captain ordered

Most of the remaining group got back through the door and sealed it behind them. They retreated back to the surface, only to be ambushed and infected.

Unexpected error: WND/INCAP/KIA? Ref.a4 3d.3

(End recording)

"What the hell? What were those things that attacked them?" Zack questioned

"I don't know, but that can't possibly be good." Tails said

"Tails, we're falling back to the entrance. These things came out of no where, and infected the bodies in the building." Mark said over the radio

"Rodger that, you guys find the captain?" Tails responded

"Negative, but we found something else." Mark said

"Okay, we'll wait for you outside the building." Tails said

Soon after the conversation ended, something started moving in the surrounding swamp. Zack, Tails, and Cream went inside the structure, and waited for the rest of the team to appear. They found surviving marines inside, hiding from something. The lift came up, carrying Mark, Sara, and Roy who regrouped with everyone there.

"What'd you guys see?" Zack asked

"Those things came out of nowhere, they took the bodies and used them as some sort of vessel. It was horrible!" Sara answered

"You guys hear anything up here?" Roy questioned

"Nothing on our motion trackers, but we did hear something. Sounded like a bunch of monsters." Tails said

"Well, we need to get the survivers out of here. I'll call for evac." Mark said turning on his radio

"Echo 419 this is Spartan-062, do you copy?" He said into it

"I copy 062, you guys find the captain?"

"Negative. We need an evac ASAP." Mark said

"Roger. On my way."

"The Pelican will be here soon, let's move!" Mark commanded

They all moved into the swamp, heading toward the LZ. A few meters away they got ambushed by zombie-like monsters, chargeing from all sides. Everyone fired their gun, except for Cream who stood there practically frozen.

"Cream, come on. Shake it off and fight back." Tails said trying to motivate her

Cream started to shoot, but could barely hold her weapon steady. One of the creatures jumped and tackled her to the ground, almost knocking her out. She could barely hear what was going on.

"Cream! Are you all right?" Tails said knealing over her

"Come on, I'm not leaving you behind." He said pulling her arm over his shoulder so that she could use him as a support.

They kept walking, until they came to a structure with a blinking lights. Tails and Cream were teleported onto a ledge infront of a floating blue light blub.

"Greetings. I am the Monitor of Installation 04. I am 343 Guilty Spark. Someone has released the Flood. My function is to prevent it from leaving this installation. But I require your assistance. Come. This way." It said, then a bright light came.

_-Real World_

Cream woke up violently shaking, and frightened. She took a deep breath, and relaxed then started to get ready for the day, and what training simulation she was going to be put through. She found Tails rather quickly, and was about to tell him about her dream, but was cut off by the intercom.

"Everyone will put in teams of four-six today. Your drill masters will tell each of you who you'll be teamed up with." The man on the intercom announced.

Everyone was told who they were teamed up with. Tails and Cream were teamed up with Zack, Sara, Roy, and Mark. A few minutes after they met up, they went to go get the same weapons they had the previous day, only Cream got an MA5B Assault Rifle. After they got them, they were teleported to what appeared to be an abandonned city. Everyone was there, except Tails and Cream.

"Hey, where are the other two?" Roy asked

"I dunno, maybe they're somewhere in this city." Zack answered

"Well if they are here, than we better find them and make sure that they aren't hurt or anything." Mark said

"If we're going to succeed in doing a Search and Rescue, we'll need a plan." Sara said

"I'll go see if I can find a high place to keep a look out for them." Mark said

"I'll go with you. You never know where the enemy might show up." Roy said

"Okay, You guys scout the area, when you find them Zack and I will attack. When the area is clear, we'll regroup and storm where ever they're being held." Sara directed

"Alright, lets go." Mark said walking toward the city

--

In another room, a female squirrel was watching their progress. She payed attention to every detail, wondering herself where Tails and Cream were.

"So, where are the other two?" She asked

"I don't know, entering this scenario training two teammates are teleported to different locations. So random that no one knows where'd they be." Dr. Hasley answered

"I see…this will be interesting to see." The squirrel said

--

"Okay, I got a good veiw from here. Looks like they're crowded at two houses. One is 3 meters to the southeast, the other is 2 meters to the west." Mark said over a radio

"Alright, we'll hit the one that's closer first. Mark, see if you can get closer to provide some sniper cover. Roy, go with him." Zack responded

Mark and Roy moved along rooftops, while Sara and Zack moved into a position where they couldn't be seen. Zack gave the order, and they all attacked swiftly takeing the Elites by surprise. The Elites barely had time to react to the sudden attack. Once the enemy was elimenated, they all regrouped at the door. Mark put his sniper rifle on his back and pulled out a shot gun.

"I like to keep this for close-range fights." Mark said

"Too right man." Zack responded

Sara slowly opened the door, battle rifle ready to fire. Everyone slowly filed into the living room of the house. They spread out and checked everyroom, they didn't see any sign of their missing teammate. Roy and Sara checked upstairs while Zack and Mark kept an eye out for enemy reinforcments. Sara and Roy came to a door, with a sound coming from behind it.

"Sounds like someone's in there. Ready?" Roy asked

"Yep" answered his partner

Roy bust down the door, and shot an Elite on the right, while Sara shot the one interigating their friend. Who they found was Cream, shaking in fear. Sara cut the rope tieing Cream's hands behind her back, Roy helped her up.

"Cream, you okay? Can you walk?" He asked

"I-I'm okay, but where's Tails?" Cream answered

"He's in another building. If we have any chance of rescueing him, we need to move." Sara said

Cream picked up her MA5B, and regrouped down stairs with the others. They were about to head to Tails' location, when something came over the radio.

"Hello? Is anyone……….this is Miles 'Tails' Prower. I escaped from them…….. They found me, and are in heavy pursuit……..anyone out there, I could use your help. I'm four meters north of two large towers and moving…….Someone, anyone. Please help (Sounds of plasma explosion) Ugh! I'm hit, I need aid ASAP!"

Cream grew very angry,Tails was hurt and she wasn't about to let it slide. They all moved outside, and saw an empty M831TT Warthog in the street. Mark hacked the egnition, and started the engine. Eveyone got in, Mark behind the wheel and moved to Tails' location.

"Can't this thing go any faster?!" Cream shouted from the back of the vehicle

"Calm down Cream, we're almost there." Mark said

They came to a part of the city where they saw some wraith tanks, and some ghosts attacking a building. Mark got out to get to a high place, and snipe the Elites driving ghosts, Zack took the wheel and drove to a spot where Roy could blow up the tanks. Mark sniped all the ghosts with a few seconds between each shot, this also attracted the wraiths attention to him. Roy saw his chance and blew them up with his rocket launcher, after the armor was delt with they Cream, Sara, and Zack went inside the building in search of Tails.

"Tails, are you here?" Cream shouted, moans from another room answered her question

Cream went to where the moans were coming from, and saw her two-tailed friend looking like he got a beating, aside from the explosion. Tails could only lie there, to see his teammates pick him up and carry him out to the TT Warthog then he lost contiousness. Everyone got in the jeep, except Mark who took a near-by ghost. They moved away from the area, and headed to a near by hospital so that they could give Tails medical attention, and took refuge there. Mark kept a sharp look out on the higher floors of the building, Roy and Zack had the lower part covered, while Sara and Cream patched Tails' wounds. Tails eventually came around to see the girls finishing their work on his body.

"Ugh….where am I?" Tails asked wearily

"Don't try to move so much, we're in a hospital." Cream answered

"Guys, we might have a problem. There's a Covenant convoy headed in our direction." Mark said over the radio

"What?! How'd they find us?" Sara said

"Hell if I know, we need to get moving." Mark said over the radio

"Alright, everyone get to the jeep." Sara said over the radio to everyone else

Cream helped Tails up, and put his arm around her shoulder, and got to the Warthog. They moved onto a highway in the city, nothing was there but a bunch of turned over cars and trucks.

"We need to get out of here, there's no way we can keep this up." Zack said handing a radio to Tails

"Hey, Tails would you be able to put out a distress signal on that?" He asked

"Yeah, but it'll take me a few minutes." Tails answered

Tails got the signal out, and got his response five minutes later.

"This is pelican Echo 419, anyone out there?"

"Yeah, we're here. Can you give us a lift?" Roy responded

"Roger. On my way."

"Looks like we have our ride out." Mark said

"Let's get to a higher point for extraction, the streets are too small to land in." Sara said

They stopped in front of a large building, and made their way to the top and popped a flare to signal their location. The dropship soon found them, and picked them up.

--

"Looks like they can work as a team." The squirrel said

"They'll be put on more training missions like this. By the time training is complete, they won't be easy to kill." Dr. Hasley said

"I look forward to see them in a real battle." The squirrel said

"You will, and you'll be amazed at what they'll be able to acomplish, Commander Acorn." The Doctor said

* * *

Hey, look Sally is here, anyone guess who the hedgehog is? (though really obvious) Anyway, hoped you enjoyed this chapter. Bonus points if anyone spots my Call of Duty 4 references. R&R plz


	6. Fall of Reach

Sorry i haven't upsated in so long, but better late than never. Here is the next part.

_

* * *

_

_Sonic Combat Evolved_

_Chapter 5_

_Fall of Reach_

Tails made his way across the Spartan training ground, seeing others in shooting ranges, boxing rings, and VR training platforms. Tails himself was heading to a briefing room he had been summoned to, the room was black with a hologram projector and podium in the center of the room. As he looked around he saw some five of his fellow Spartans sitting on the benches, and another in blue armor talking with Dr. Halsey and a brown squirrel wearing a white outfit. He noticed the name 'Acorn' printed above the squirrel's campaign ribbons. Tails took a seat next to the other Spartans, the lights dimmed as Dr. Halsey stepped behind the podium.

"Hello Spartans. You have all been picked for a highly classified mission." Dr. Halsey said as holograms of a Covenant frigate appeared

"Your mission will be to board a Covenant ship, escort one of our best hackers to the bridge and set course for their home-world." Dr. Halsey said "Your team leader will be Spartan-117."

The blue armored Spartan rose and took the podium, while the doctor took a seat. Tails and the Spartans rose and gave a salute in unison. Master Chief gave a salute back to them, and started to remove his helmet as the Spartans sat down in their seats. When the Chief set his helmet down, Tails wanted to let his jaw drop but he didn't due to military discipline. Tails had looked upon a face he thought he'd never see again, his 'brother' Sonic, stood before him and the other Spartans.

"Alright Spartans, the way we are going to do this is that first, the Pillar of Autumn under the command of Captain Keyes will disable the engines with EMP charges long enough for us to board the ship undetected." Sonic said in an unusually firm voice

"Once we're inside, we clear the area of any of those Covenant bastards. After that we escort Commander Acorn to the bridge so she can plug into their network and get the location of their homeworld, from there we'll make a jump to that location land there, capture one of their leaders, a 'prophet', and bring it back to UNSC controlled space. Our mission starts in two days, make sure your ready. Dismissed." The Chief finished

The Spartans stood, snapped a salute and left, but Tails stayed behind. Tails just stood their looking at Sonic, and Commander Acorn. Sonic noticed Tails standing there and gave a warm smile. Sonic walked over to him, Tails still wanted to show something he hasn't thought about in a long time about: showing some amount of emotion.

"Well look who made it through training, you ready to go home?" Sonic asked teasingly

"No sir, I'd rather stay here and fight." Tails answered

"Well then, before you do that I'd like to say it's nice to see you again." Sonic said with a smile

"It's been awhile since we met in person." Sally said as she walked to meet Tails

"Yes it has Aunt- I mean Commander Acorn." Tails said, still responding in a military form

"Well actually, I've seen you perform in your earlier years of training." Sally admitted

"You have?" Tails asked

"Yes, your performance and cooperation with your team was amazing to watch." Sally said smiling

"Thanks." Tails said, finally breaking a smile

"So how rough were Chief Mendez and his instructors?" Sonic asked

"To start off, sounds like they have an attitude problem but you'd eventually get used to it." Tails answered, taking a seat

"How's Cream been since the program started?" Sonic wondered

"She was, at first, scared to even get out of bed but she came around." Tails said

"Well then, I guess I'll have to see your skills on the battlefield for myself." Sonic said

"You should go get ready, there should be a simulation on this op ready for you and your teammates." Sally said

"Yeah, wouldn't want to slip-up in front of the enemy, see you guys later." Tails said as he left

_-one day later…_

Tails and his team spent a lot of time getting ready for their mission. The simulation was brutal, it was really hard not to get lost in the alien ship and enemies popped up everywhere. Tails was lying on his bed in the barracks sleeping when the ground shook violently, causing him to fall to the ground.

"What the hell?" He muttered to himself, his communicator beeped loudly

"Hello?" Tails said into it

"Hey, you awake yet? You need to get out here now! The Covenant found us and launched an attack. " Sara answered

"Got it, I'm on my way." Tails said before he hung up, and put on his armor

Tails hurried to put his armor on and ran outside with his MA5B ready, the grounds were destroyed and littered with craters from orbit. A plasma bolt flew past his head, Tails took cover behind a long piece of metal sticking out of the ground. Tails kept his head down as plasma bolts rained down on him

"Hey, where are you guys?" Tails spoke into his COM-link

"We're at the hangar, Mark should be on his way to assist you." Sara answered

"You guys have an ETA?" Tails said as he returned fire on the Covenant soldiers

"He should be there in a few minutes. Just hang on." Sara said

Tails heard a small beeping noise. He suddenly realized what it was, and jumped away from the piece of metal. The chunk of metal was soon devoured by a small blue cloud of smoke as it exploded. Tails scrambled to his feet, trying to get to cover but was grabbed by two elites instead. He tried to break free, but their grip on him was too strong. He soon heard the sound of an ATV, he turned his head to see a Spartan in red armor driving a mongoose ATV directly at him. The Spartan turned over his ATV as he slammed it into the two sangheili, jumping off of it and throwing a frag 

grenade at the ATV and the two enemies. The explosion from both the grenade and Mongoose ATV killed both the aliens.

"Nice timing, Mark." Tails said sarcastically, getting to his feet

"Thank you, now come on let's go." Mark said running in the direction he came from

Tails followed his teammate back toward the hangar, Mark came to a stop. "Stay here" he told Tails as he took out his sniper rifle. A few seconds later Tails heard shots from the rifle and some elites shriek before they fell dead.

"Go ahead Tails, I'll give you some sniper cover. Sara should be putting up a Nav mark down to mark the hangar." Mark said to Tails over the radio

An orange arrow appeared on Tails' HUD, under it read 1.4km. Tails moved forward, and came to where bodies of elites next to ghosts. Tails got inside one and started it up, heading toward the hangar.

"Hey, Tails slowdown a bit, there's a grunt patrol party up ahead. Wait for me to take them out, their over-charged plasma bolts will make that ghost short circuit." Mark said from a different location

"Got that." Tails responded

Mark threw a grenade into the middle of the patrol party, one of the grunts noticed and freaked out starting to run and flail his arms around. The others turned to see what it was and were killed by the explosion, Mark shot the one that was freakn' out.

"Alright, go ahead Tails." Mark said

Tails got to the hangar, and saw Zack and Roy waiting outside the hangar door.

"About time you got here. Where's Mark" Roy said to him

"I'm right here, can't just wait five minutes can you?" Mark said practically appearing out of nowhere

"Where'd you come from?" Zack asked

"I think that would be a question for another time, don't we need to be somewhere?" Mark said heading into the hangar

"Yeah, we need to leave. Let's go!" Roy said heading inside

--

"So anyone have an idea on _how_ they found us?" Tails asked as he walked up to the rest of the team

"So far, no. What we need to do is get out of here before they glass the planet's surface. Everyone get on board the 

Autumn." Sara said heading toward the giant Halcyon-class ship

Everyone took one last look at the area, they all got a feeling that they weren't going to come back anytime soon. The engines roared to life as they boarded the Autumn. They made their way to the bridge where Captain Keyes was talking to a small blue hologram. He looked up at the Spartan team, they all gave him a salute simultaneously.

"All Spartans on board sir." Sara said

"Good. Cortana get us out of here." Captain Keyes ordered

"Yes sir." The hologram said as it disappeared

"You might want to hang on to something, once we're in space the Covenant will be all over us." Captain Keyes said

The ship soon reached space, and like the Captain said, the Covenant was on to them. UNSC and Covenant battleships lashed out at each other while their smaller craft zipped across the battlefield. Keyes found himself busy directing the crew, not exactly needing to deal with anything else. Seeing this, the Spartans began to leave the bridge.

"Sir, we have a problem." Cortana said popping up on the hologram terminal

"What is it Cortana?"

"The UNSC _Circumference_ is in risk of capture, and is unable to follow Cole Protocol." The small hologram reported "They're requesting that a team of Spartans be sent to finish the job."

"I see. Lieutenant, is your squad up for it?" Keyes said turning to the Spartans

"Yes sir." Sara answered

"Good, get whatever you need and get to a Pelican." Keyes commanded

The team quickly moved to an on board armory, loading up on ammo and other field supplies. They moved quickly toward the hangar, passing Sally, who caught Tails' attention causing him to stop.

"Running off so soon."She asked sarcastically

"Yeah, we gotta do something important." He answered

"Well then, take this with you." The squirrel said, pulling a memory card looking object and handing it to him

"Tails, come on! We need to go!" Zack yelled, from down the corridor

"Bye." He said to Sally just before he ran off to join the rest of his team boarding the pelican

"So anyone have a plan of action, or are we going to figure it out as we go along?" Roy asked, spinning the tubes of his rocket launcher

"So far as we know, the _Circumference_ is in danger of capture. Unfortunately there could be X amount of Covenant in the area." Zack answered as the pelican started to move

"Hang on, it's going to be a bumpy ride." The pilot said over the radio, heading toward the planet surface

"Man, I can't wait to start kicking their ass." Mark said, doing something to his sniper rifle

"Remember that were here to do something, don't get careless." Cream commented

The pelican soon burned through the atmosphere, breaking through clouds. They remained on course to their objective, but a pair of Banshees spotted them opening fire. Each hit caused the pelican to shake wildly, eventually having it's left thruster shot. The drop-ship spun wildly out of control to the ground, making a small crater, grinding to a halt.

"Regroup!" Sara shouted, climbing out of the wreckage being followed by Mark, Zack, and Roy

"Status report."

"Tails has been knocked out ma'am, Cream requests that she stay behind to watch over him." Zack reported

"Granted. Pillar of Autumn, this is Spartan team Alpha. Do you read, over." Sara said, opening a COM link

"We read you loud and clear Alpha, did you make it to the _Circumference_?" Keyes answered

"Negative Captain, we have been shot down and one of our members is knocked out another is giving medical attention." Sara reported

"Copy that, your target shouldn't be too far from your location. It should be west of your position, but I can't guarantee there won't be any Covenant in your path." Keyes instructed

"Copy that, Alpha out. Okay listen up, our target is west from here. Zack you stay here and assist them anyway you can. Mark, Roy you guys are with me. As soon as Tails is up find a way to the hangar." Sara commanded

"Yes ma'am!" Everyone said

Sara and her team moved to the target, while Cream and Zack stayed behind watching over Tails. Minutes later, Tails finally came to feeling dizzy, and like he was going to puke. Cream helped him into a 'sitting up' position.

"Alpha 1 this is Alpha 2, Miles is awake. Repeat: Miles has woken up." Zack radioed

"Copy that Alpha 2, now find a way to the target." Sara replied

"Copy that, Zack out. We need to get moving." He said, looking around spotting a fallen Hornet, motioning Tails over to it

"Miles, you're a good pilot right? See if you can get this thing air-borne again." Zack commanded

Tails sat in the cockpit, getting to work as fast as he could. He got the wires plugged in the right spots, but had trouble starting it up.

"I got it, jump on." Tails said, lifting off slightly, then ascending once Zack and Cream got on.

"Hope you're ready Tails, 'cause here come Banshees!" Cream pointed out

Tails saw the patrol close in on him, He quickly familiarized himself with the controls. He saw something that seemed out of place though, what looked to be a memory card object. Tails placed the memory card he got in it, moments later a hologram of a black-haired lynx in a purple outfit appeared on a small display.

"It's been awhile Tails." It said

"Yeah, it has. Can you help us out here, Nicole?" Tails requested

The lynx nodded, turning her attention to the enemy examining the situation and determining the best course of action,

"Tails fire your missiles I'll guide them to the target." Nicole requested, Tails nodded doing as instructed. The Banshees did a barrel roll, making them miss. Nicole guided them, turning them and blowing them up.

"Alpha 2, this is Alpha 1. Have you found transportation, over?" Roy asked

"Affirmative Alpha 1, we found a Hornet and are heading toward the target over." Zack answered

"Great, how about you high-tail it over to the hangar and give us some air-support." Roy requested

"Got it, we're on our way. You heard him Tails, get us over there." Zack ordered

Tails moved in that direction, making it seem like a short jog when it was really a bit of a hike. The Hornet came up on the target area, they could see gunfire from the entrance, and lots more plasma bolts fired back. Tails targeted the ones standing in the open, Zack and Cream fired on whichever they saw. Sara's team advanced on the Covenant position, forcing them to fall back into the ship. The area 

clear, Tails landed his Hornet in the hangar taking Nicole out of the slot, placing the card in them back of his helmet. The two rabbits hopped off soon after, regrouping with the rest of the squad.

"We going inside or what? I can't wait to blow them up." Roy said, playing with the rocket launcher barrel

"We'll be going soon enough, anyone have a battle plan?" Mark asked, reloading his weapons

"First, we locate the bridge. From there, we'll download ship schematics, locate the reactor level and find a way out." Sara commanded

The Spartans made their way into the ship, slowly proceeding through the corridor. A grunt came down the hall, but didn't quite see them yet. Sara attached a silencer onto her Assault Rifle, disposing of the grunt quickly. Everyone else picked up on the trend, putting silencer on theirs as well. Going further they came to a fork in the road, forcing them to split up for the time being.

"Tails, Mark, and Cream you go right. Roy, Zack you're with me." Sara ordered, walking toward the left corridor

Both teams proceeded down the hallways, Sara's team already encountered some on-board resistance. Tails' team slowed down, seeing an Elite with it's back turned. Mark took out a small throwing knife, and chucked it at the enemy's head hitting the target.

"Nice throw." Tails commented, walking down the hall

Cream followed after him, Mark was about to when he heard something resembling someone in pain. He followed the sound to its source, finding a blue echidna in a black ODST suit bleeding on the side.

"Hey, over here! I found someone!" He called, kneeling down toward the downed ODST

"Are you alright?" Mark said, helping the ODST up so that she leaned on him

"I'll be fine, you're a Spartan right." She replied

"Yeah, we're here to get rid of this ship. Tails, radio the Autumn, we have a survivor." The fox ordered

"Captain, this is Alpha 2. We are on board the _Circumference_ and have a survivor." Tails said

"Copy that, Alpha 2. Advise you take them to any possible evac point on that ship." The Captain ordered

"Copy that, we're moving to the Pelican bays." Tails replied, moving out

"Hey Nicole, you wouldn't happen to know where Alpha 1's target is would you?" Tails asked

"Fortunately, I do. I'll put down its location." The AI said

Continuing toward the hangar, a group of grunts spotted them and running in the other direction. Soon they returned with a pair of Brutes. The Spartans ducked behind something, Mark put down the ODST so she wouldn't get hurt or be in the way. Mark got out a non-standard issue rifle, and fired from behind a small box. Cream chucked a plasma grenade which stuck to one of the Brutes. The other ducked away from it as it blew his friend to bloody bits. The brute became enraged, starting to charge the team pouncing on Mark, hitting the visor hard enough to make the left side (Mark's right) shatter clawing a gash just below his eye. The red Spartan managed to beat back the animal, making it fall on its back. He grabbed his weapon, revving up its chainsaw bayonet, cutting through the Brute as its blood sprayed everywhere mainly the Spartan's armor, some into the open part of his helmet, stopping when the Brute was cut in half.

"Damn, where'd you get that?" Tails asked

"I'll tell you when we're done, let's go." Mark said, picking up the shock trooper moving on

The group made it to the pelican area, boarding what appeared to be the last one. Mark set the ODST down on one of the seats.

"Alpha two to Alpha one, we've made it to the evac point." Tails said

"Alright, stand-by we're on our way." Sara answered

"You have a name?" Mark said to the ODST

"Alyx Sari." She answered

"What happened here?" Cream asked, taking the seat next her

"Those Covenant bastards overwhelmed us, killed everyone they could find. I was lucky they thought I was dead, but until you guys showed up, I thought I was going to be dead." The echidna answered

"Yeah, how's that wound feeling?" Mark asked, getting something to clean it up

"It's fine, it'll be better when I get some to take a look at it."

Tails stepped into the cockpit, putting Nicole in the AI slot it had. He sat down, getting the ship ready for take off.

"We're here, let's go!" Zack hollered as the rest off the team boarded the Pelican

"Hang on!" Tails said, bringing the ship to life

The Pelican ascended into the clouds, Tails closed the hatch as it approached space. The lieutenant already informed the Captain of mission success. The ship docked with the Autumn. Alyx was taken to the medical area, Mark went to fix his helmet. Everyone else headed to the cryo chambers, 

knowing how long it took to get through slip-space. The ship slipped away from the Covenant attackers as they 'glassed' the planet successfully jumping into slip-space to where ever it was going.

To answer some question before they're asked, the 'non-standard' gun in use is the Lancer assault rifle from Gears of War, hope you enjoyed this and i'll try to put more up sooner.


	7. Halo

First off as a thing to say, i didn't have the exact times that the characters said things, like when Cortana mentions the Anti-matter charge. _

* * *

_

_Sonic Combat Evolved_

_Chapter 6_

_Halo_

The Autumn exited slip-space, taking a week's time to reach its random destination. A gas-giant could easily be seen in the distance, but a smaller object became more visible as they got closer; a huge ring-like object of unknown origin. The Autumn approached the space station, beginning to pick up Covenant signals. The Captain already dished out orders, preparing for the enemy engagement.

"…and Cortana, let's give our friends a warm welcome."

"I've already begun." The hologram said

_-Cryobay area _

The two crewmen working in cryogenics saw the notice from the Captain, and began to 'defrost' the Spartans. Giving them a double dose of the wake-up stimulant, and making sure their suits were in working order.

"Captain to Cryogenics: Have the Spartans sent to the bridge." Keyes ordered over the ship intercom system

"But sir, we haven't gone through weapons diagnostics."

"On the double, crewman!"

"The skipper's a bit jumpy, we better hurry. Sam get to your evac group." The man said turning to the crewman in observation window

"Just gotta lockdown this console, and I'm outta-, Security! We have a breach in Cryo one! Agh!"

"Sam, Sam! Come on, we gotta get out of here!" the Crewman said running out the door, Spartans following. Going ahead, getting killed by an explosion

The Spartans jumped over a fairly big pipe to their left, proceeding down the hall coming to a large corridor. Plasma fire came from the left, human bullets coming from the right. The team managed to dodge the incoming fire, coming to another door.

"Anyone notice we're missing some people?" Zack said, sarcastically

"I'm sure Mark and Tails are fine, we have been trained to fight on our own as well as in groups." Sara replied, proceeding down inside the door

"But, which is more dangerous against the Covenant."

"I would advise you not to give back talk to your commanding officer." The Chief said to the private as he passed by

The group went through the door, finding an Elite busy with something. A red Spartan charged up slugging it in its face, the Elite punched him in the gut, grabbing the Spartans neck. The Spartan grabbed the enemy's arm with his hands, snapping it like a brittle twig throwing the alien to the ground, grabbing his Lancer putting the chainsaw through its chest, the Elite screaming at the top of its lungs.

"Damn, remind me not to piss him off." Roy said, walking forward

The Spartan jumped, pointing his gun toward the group. He lowered his weapon upon realizing who they were.

"Sorry about that, everything is a bit heck-tic right now. The bridge isn't too far from here." The fox said, pointing down the hall

"Do you know where Tails is?" Sonic asked

"The Captain wanted the best pilots out there on the enemy fighters and boarding craft, sir." Mark reported

"Alright then, let's move on." The Chief ordered, proceeding into another large corridor, heavy fire coming down the hall

Mark got behind one of the support beams, giving covering fire. Everyone else moved into the armory across the hall full with injured Marines, grabbing the remaining weapons and ammo (except Sonic) and moving to the bridge. Sonic was the one to actually go see Keyes while everyone else guarded the entrance.

"Captain Keyes."

"Good to see you Master Chief, things aren't going so well." The Captain said shaking Chiefs hand, feeling the ship rumble a few minutes later

"That explosion came from the inside; I'm guessing an Anti-matter charge." Cortana said popping up on the hologram display

"Ma'am controls to the main gun is offline." A crewman reported

"Captain, that cannon was my last defensive option." Cortana said

"Well I guess that's it, I'm activating Cole Protocol Article Two: We're abandoning the Autumn." Keyes ordered

"But Captain-"

"That means you too Cortana, destruction or capture of shipboard AI is completely unacceptable. Make a list of suitable landing zones, then upload them to my neural lace. Then get yourself read to leave."

"Aye, sir." She said disappearing

"Which is where you come in Chief, get Cortana of this ship keep her safe from the enemy, if she gets captured they'll learn everything; force deployment, weapons research… Earth." Keyes said turning to the Spartan

"I understand." He said

"Everything's setup, not that you'll listen but I'd suggest you let my sub-routines handle the final landing sequence." She said, popping up on the display again

"Thank you Cortana, are you ready?"

"Yank me." She said taking a last look around

Keyes pulled her storage unit, giving it to Sonic. Taking the object he placed it in the back of his helmet.

"Huh, your armor structure isn't that much different from the Autumn." Her voice commented

"Don't get any funny ideas."

"I don't keep this loaded, you'll have to find ammo as you go." Keyes said handing him a pistol

Sonic exited the bridge, giving the team their orders. Cortana confirmed just enough life boats still on board to house at least one of them. The team split up to get to them, Roy came to an Elite with its back turned taking his combat knife silently stabbing it in the back, and moved on as quietly as he could. Mark felt a sudden rumble, looking out the near by window he saw plasma blasts hit his assigned life boat.

"Hey, any of you guys still here? My life boat got killed before I could get on, I need an alternate route, over." He said, heading back the way he came

"Sorry Mark, there's no more. Looks like you're going to have to hope for the best when it lands." Cortana responded

"Hold on, I might be able to pick him up." Tails said, turning his ship back to the Autumn

"Don't come back, I'll be fine. You guys go ahead, we'll meet somewhere on that ring." Mark said, getting back to the bridge feeling another rumble

_-Outside the Halcyon-class cruiser_

"The Autumn! Incoming!" A marine yelled, with his comm. system on

"I knew it! The Autumn is accelerating, Keyes is driving it in manually." Cortana said, seeing the same as everyone else as the ship flew by

"Entering the rings' atmosphere in five!" The pilot said

"You might want to take a seat." The A.I. suggested to her carrier

"We'll be fine." The Chief replied, holding the sides of the life boat

"If I still had fingers, they'd be crossed."

_-At the Pillar of Autumn's crash site_

Mark slowly began to awaken, his vision blurred. He steadily got up, walking to retrieve his Lancer. Pausing as he stood, he saw a lot of Covenant Elites. Awkward silence filling the air, finally broken when an Elite smacked him in the head, knocking away his helm. The Spartan stood there seemingly unfazed by the attack.

"You're going to wish you didn't do that." He said, tripping the Elite stepping on its neck so that it only held it to the ground, shoving a revved chainsaw through its chest still staring at the group.

"Who's next?!" he said, as the front line charged

The first one was met with his chainsaw, finishing off the first one. Punching the next to the ground, picking him up as a meat shield backing up to a support beam, he dropped the body bag starting to return fire from behind the beam. The Elites had used their own fallen comrades bodies' for cover, making it harder for Mark to get them. The Spartan heard a small 'beeping' noise, trying to get away was caught in the explosion, he was once again on the ground knocked out.

_-Random Life boat crash site_

The crew stepped out of the escape pod, quickly surveying the area for any movement. Their surroundings clear, they took the time to get familiar with it.

"This is Spartan-255, anyone out there please respond."

"This is Spartan-365, I read you loud and clear Tails. What's your status, over." The onyx colored Spartan responded

"I have entered the rings' atmosphere ma'am. I'm detecting a lot of Spirit drop-ships all over the place." He reported

The lieutenant paused for a moment, hearing humming noises in the distance. A large purple fork-spoon shaped object appeared over the ridge, all marines in the area knew what this meant, scrambling for cover. The ship set down, unleashing grunts and Elites upon them. The place was soon littered with bullets and plasma fire. A few grenades tossed back and forth, some sticking to the marines, having the cannon fodder gone didn't make much of a difference.

"Tails, you close enough to make an airstrike?" Sara said, firing blindly

"Yes ma'am, give me a signal."

"Look for red smoke to mark their position." She said, popping a red stick tossing it at the feet of the enemy.

"Copy that, on my way. ETA of about five minutes."

Five minutes, more than enough time for them to get wiped out. The Spartan ordered the marines to back up and draw the enemy's attention. While that was done, she snuck around to the side and opened fire making them think there were more than there actually was. A grenade was flung toward her position, she ducked away behind a rock.

"Thirty-seconds out, you guys better get out of the way."

Another Spirit appeared over the ridge preparing to drop its' cargo. The ship suddenly burst into flames and metal scraps and the surrounding area became filled with holes. A long shadow flew over head followed by the hum of engines.

"Target destroyed; I suggest you call for transport." Tails' voice crackled over the radio

"This is Lieutenant Sara, requesting transport." The Spartan said into her comm. unit

"This is Echo 417, I read you lieutenant, on my way."

"Roger that, Tails search for any other survivors in the surrounding areas."

"Alright." He said leaving them to wait for the Pelican, continuing on over a structure on a lake

"You see anyone Nicole?" He asked, making passes around it

"No one appears to be outside the structure… maybe they're inside taking shelter." The AI suggested

"This is Spartan-255, is anyone out there, over?" getting nothing for about five minutes, he almost left

"This is Spartan-117, Tails you out there?"

"Yes, John I'm here, is anyone else with you?"

"Roy, and Zack have managed to find my life boat and team. The Covenant are swarming our position."

"Copy that, can you draw them outside?" Tails asked

"That is possible, but it'd be hard under fire, plus we have marine survivors."

"Can you give me their coordinates in the building?" The fox requested, his response was a 3-D hologram with a red blip on one side. He turned around toward the building, and launched a pair of missiles. They tore into the side of the building, rubble and blood sprayed everywhere.

"Damn Tails, any closer that would've killed us!" Zack snapped

"Cut him some slack, he just saved our asses." Roy responded

"Moving on, any of you know where Cream's life boat landed?" Tails questioned

"I saw one fly over the ridge at these coordinates." John reported

"Alright, see you guys later." Tails said, heading off in search of the rabbit

--

"This is your stop number 105." Chief Mendez said in his usually gruff voice, Cream had stepped out of the Pelican. The ship roared to life leaving her there as she ran off into the forest. She slowed to a jog, keeping a look out for danger or any of her fellow Spartan trainees. The rabbit pressed on, looking at a map fragment that had been given to her. She had come to a clearing with a lake, seeing the group of trainees. An orange fox looked up from the group, seeing her enter the clearing.

"Hey Cream, over hear!" He called out to her

--

"Cream! Are you out there?" Tails said into the radio, being met with static, he slammed a fist onto his arm rest.

"Tails, as much as I'd hate to say it but, we may be too late." Nicole said, popping up on a holographic display. "She could have died in the crash."

"Do a check for any signs of her, there's no way I'm believing that." He objected, Nicole nodded her head disappearing and doing as told.

--

The area Tails was sweeping over was in the middle of a forest fire caused by the boat on it's way in. Fire closed in a fifty-meters diameter around the escape pod. Bodies were spread around the exit of it. Inside, something began to awaken. Feeling nauseous and had a small headache, she rose from the floor, wanting to remove her helmet and gag, the only factor preventing that was the fire in the surrounding area. She stumbled out of the Life boat, falling to her hands and knees. Looking around she saw four Elites de-cloak, surrounding her. Two picked her up by her arms and moving toward the fire, seconds later a ship passed by over head.

"Tails, vital signs verified. Four enemies down below, it looks like they're carrying something. A friendly." Nicole reported, an image coming up on the display, four Elites one downed Spartan, two carrying the Spartan.

"There too close to each other to kill with anything aboard this bird." Tails said moving to the back of the ship "Open the hatch."

"What?! Tails there's no way you'll make it from this height." The AI protested

"Make another pass, and open the hatch." He said again, anger slightly detectable in his voice

The Longsword turned around, Nicole opened the hatch, Tails walked to the edge holding on to the side. The ship passed again, Tails flung himself out of it in total free fall. The fox's speed rapidly increased as he descended. The Elite in front stopped to check his team's status, they were still proceeding to their dropship. He turned to move on, but before he could take one step, his head was planted to the ground by a metal boot. The Spartan crushed the enemy's head beneath his foot. An Elite drew his weapon, firing it, Tails tucked and rolled avoiding as much fire as he could.

He rolled to one of the aliens holding Cream hostage, upper-cutting it and using him as a meat shield. Stealing the Plasma Rifle he pointed it at the remaining two. The other Elite dropped Cream, and drew his own rifle, all three stood there looking at each other. Tails had only a few minutes to figure out his situation, though he only needed a few seconds.

"Nicole, load a missile and fire it at these coordinates on my go." Tails spoke into the COM channel

"Copy that, missile armed and ready." Nicole replied, turning the Longsword around

Thirty seconds passed by, Tails heard the plane close in near his position. "GO!" He barked into the COM link, snapping his hostage's neck, charging another one. Firing a few plasma rounds at it taking the shield down, once he was close enough he slugged his enemy in the chest, shattering bones. A missile hit behind a tree behind the last one, almost hitting it as it rolled away, Tails stood over it. The Elite looked up being met by a metal fist, being beaten until he no longer looked like he did. Tails walked over to his unconscious friend, picking her up and running through the flaming forest. The forest stopped came to a drop he jumped the cliff, escaping the fire but being faced with another problem. Nicole guided the ship to the two Spartans, re-opening the loading ramp, performing a barrel-roll and catching the two as the tumbled around until they hit the back of one of the seats. Cream, still knocked out, landed on top of Tails one place on top of the other… Nicole couldn't help but laugh a bit see them like that. Tails placed Cream in one of the seats, and taking the other. Relaxing, Tails removed his helmet letting Nicole pilot the Interceptor.

"Tails to Squad Leader: I found our last member, over." He said into the ship's COM system

"Great work, meet us at this location ASAP." Sara ordered, giving coordinates to the young pilot

"Copy that, over and out." The kitsune said, taking a look at where the meeting area was; it was in the vicinity of The Autumn

"Tails, two Banshees incoming!" Nicole said, bringing up a holographic display

Tails put his helmet back on, mentally cursing himself for letting his guard down, and took the controls. The to flyers on him fired plasma cannons, striking one of the ship's engines . Tails struggled to control it, he was being hit too many times.

"This is Spartan-255 broadcasting on all channels: My bird has been hit and I'm going down, repeat, I'm going down!" He barked into the radio, as his Interceptor neared the ground.

He grabbed Nicole's memory chip, running to open the back kicking to open the back. One of the Banshees fired a plasma torpedo, the green blob struck close to the landing gear causing it to fall off. Tails dashed back to the cockpit to grab his fellow Spartan. The Covenant fliers ceased fire to let the plane burn, Tails jumped from the back into the forest. He landed hard on the ground, leaving behind his boot prints a few inches into the ground as he dashed toward the trees. He came to a tree with a large hole at the base of it and set Cream down, he lifted her head forward inserting the AI card in her helmet. After doing so, he went into the tree line, keeping constant watch of the area.

* * *

Can't really think of much to say here...oh well, time to work on the next part. See ya!


	8. Recon and Rescue

Another update with me not having much to really say, but whatever. Enjoy!

_

* * *

___

Sonic Combat Evolved

_Chapter 7_

_Recon and Rescue_

_Unknown Location_

The Spartan started to awaken, rolling around a bit making groaning sounds. His vision was blurred for a few seconds; he sat up against an unfamiliar wall. The fox's sight came into focus, seeing a familiar ODST sitting directly across from him sleeping. He looked around, finding himself in a Covenant holding cell. He stood up examining the environment beyond his cage, there were two guards seemingly talking to each other, other cells either had blood in them or a marine. The ODST began to awaken, stretching her limbs out. She looked around lazily, not expecting to see her savior in the same place.

"Is that what you always do when you're held against your will? Or is it just a 'beauty nap'?" He said playfully

"Well what else am I supposed to do, nothing much goes on in these kinds of places."

"You run into pre-service trouble?"

"If you'd count a couple run-ins with the police, than yes. Probably the main reason I'm here anyway." She said sitting up straighter

"They probably didn't want to over fill any prisons available. But, we'd need anyone available." Mark said, taking a spot on the cold metal floor

"By the way, I thought Spartans were trained to **never** surrender, and what happened to your helmet?" Alyx asked, slightly giggling

"I didn't surrender, those alien bastards got a lucky shot, and as for my helmet it got knocked off." He answered

"Yeah…sure you didn't become scared and shit you biomechanically augmented pants." The echidna commented with a fill blown smile

"My training prevents that sort of-eh you wouldn't understand. How many years have you been in the service?"

"A few years, why?"

"Curiosity, also how'd you pass selection for ODST?"

"Battlefield performance, how'd you get to be one of the doc's toy soldiers?"

"That information is classified." He answered, trying to think of a better thing to say

"Most things about you guys is classified. Come on tell me, I won't tell anyone else."

"Sorry, but I can't share restricted information. Besides ONI would freak out too much over it."

"True, but come on. No one else can here us, they're all asleep, and the guards are off their shift." Alyx begged, crawling on top of him making the youngest Spartan blush a bit, he didn't know how to respond to this.

His eyes shifted uneasily making sure the room was clear. He leaned forward whispering the secret in her ear. She stopped for a second to process the information she just got.

"The previous conversation: never happened." Mark said, leaning back against the wall, Alyx leaned forward kissing him on the cheek for a split second then whispered;

"Understood…sir"

She slid off him, sitting by his side leaning on his armored shoulder, drifting back to sleep.

_Forest Section, 1300 standard military time (1:00pm)_

Tails sat in the trees for five long hours, laying in wait for any scout parties. He almost fell asleep half the time, but kept himself awake. The Spartan he was watching began to stir once more, shifting uneasily from one side to the other. A light in the corner of Tails' HUD winked to life, as Nicole's voice said to him:

"She's waking up Tails."

The fox came out of the tree line, walking over to his fellow Spartan. The light brown colored Spartan leaned forward, removing her helmet throwing-up on the ground in front of her. Tails felt compelled to pat her on the back, but he'd hit the armor. Cream slowly tried to stand up, stumbling backward onto the tree. Tails jumped to help her gain balance, Cream put her helmet back on.

"You alright?" He asked her

"I'll be fine…" She answered

"I hope so, or we'd have more trouble than we need." Nicole commented

"What do you mean Nicole?" Tails questioned

"I mean that the Covenant is sweeping over the area, looking to see if we're still alive."

"Than we better get a move on, Nicole see if you can get anyone on the comm. channel and signal for evac." Tails ordered

He handed Cream his MA5B Assault Rifle and giving her all of his extra rounds for it. He drew a Plasma Rifle he policed from an Elite. They moved into the forest making it harder for Banshees to spot them, and masking any thermal signatures via foliage. Nicole tried to reach someone on their communication network, getting no one on the receiving end. The pair cautiously proceeded through the forest. Tails zoomed his visor's binoculars with thermal vision active.

"Shit, Grunt patrol up ahead." He said into the suit's personal comm. link between him and Cream. Cream attached a silencer to her weapon while Tails pulled out a silenced USP.40 he modified before leaving Reach. Cream climbed up into a tree, Tails laid down in the grass. The Grunts came closer, walking until they practically stood on top of Tails.

"Smoke 'em." The orange Spartan whispered

Cream pumped rounds into them, completely rupturing their environmental suits while Tails killed the stragglers. The patrol was soon destroyed, Cream slid down the tree helping Tails off the ground.

"I'm not getting anything on the comm. channels, maybe we should hack a Covenant communication relay." Nicole said

"That won't be easy; you know where they set up camp?" Cream asked

"It isn't too far, just a few meters east." Nicole answered putting down a nav marker

"Well then, let's hurry and get there." Tails said as he dashed in the direction of the camp, Cream following after him. They came upon the camp in less than five minutes. An Elite was already at the console they needed, a couple Jackals feasted upon an unfamiliar corpse while a pair of Hunters wandered aimlessly.

"This will be a challenge." Tails whispered pulling out a plasma pistol "Alright, I'll kill the Elites shield with this; you kill it with your Assault Rifle. Everyone else will have been alerted by then, as soon as that happens, we fall back into the tree line and take the camp from both sides."

An acknowledgment light flickered on his HUD; he steadied the Covie weapon and focused on the Elite, charging the bolt. Cream focused on their target, Tails released the bolt of molten plasma, Cream fired silenced rounds as soon as the bolt made contact. The Elite let out a blood-curdling scream; everyone else became alerted and watched the tree line. Tails circled left while his partner circled right. Tails fired upon the Hunters with the Plasma Pistol, drawing their attention as well as the four Jackals. Cream took the opening shooting two, then running up and slamming the remaining two's heads together.

Tails ducked away from another large plasma bolt, getting behind a tree. He sent a message to Cream, asking her to use any grenades she had against the hunters. He pulled out a frag grenade and tossed it, afterwards a beam struck him. He let out an ear splitting scream, his health icon flashed weakly on Cream's HUD. Cream became pissed, and charged the pair hunters.

"Cream, what are you doing?!" The AI said in completely surprised to see her actions

"Returning the favor." Cream answered, her voice having a chilled edge to it, as she jumped on the Hunter's back grabbing onto the spikes.

The hulking brute flailed around in a vein attempt to remove her. Cream managed to control its movement making it crush its partner. She hung onto the spikes with her legs while loading shredder rounds into her gun. She shoved it in the monsters back, and fired fully automatic rounds. The Hunter fell dead to the ground, Cream rushed to Tails' aid. His right arm had been vaporized; he was only half-awake. Cream leaned him against the terminal, inserting Nicole so she could send a signal. Cream removed his helmet, his white mussel was stained red, the inside of his helmet was basically the same. He coughed up a good amount of blood, Cream took whatever medical supply she could find and sealed Tails' arm socket. Tails passed out shock and blood loss, Cream could only hope that a pelican would come soon. A voice crackled over the hacked terminal:

"This is Firebase Bravo is anyone there? Over." Cream jumped up to the console

"Spartan-105 responding, request immediate evac, over." She answered, she heard someone tell the original person to let whoever it was takeover the console

"Thank god your okay Cream, is Tails with you?" Commander Acorn asked

"Yes ma'am, but he's been critically wounded. His entire right arm has been vaporized by the enemy."

"What?! Chief, get a squad ready to extract them." Sally ordered "Hang tight you two, help is on its way."

"Understood." Cream said as the channel snapped off, she sighed feeling useless. For the moment she'd have to keep watch, she extracted Nicole from the console and reinserted the card in her helmet.

_Covenant Carrier, prison block 1330 standard military time (1:30pm)_

Mark and Alyx had spent most of the time sleeping in their cage, and talking when they where awake. The subject was mainly about their 'pre-service' lives; Alyx spent a lot of time in Juvie for assisted theft amongst other criminal acts while Mark had spent time on playgrounds and park areas. That had eventually gotten boring, so they started to spare against one another. The other Marines, and even the guards, watched as the two practiced hand-to-hand combat, the Marines even started to cheer for one of them as if it was a fight between two high schoolers. Mark won more than she did, Alyx asked him to remove the MJOLNIR armor, but the only one who could without tech officers was Tails.

Alyx threw a punch at the Spartan; he made a quick side-step grabbing her wrist carful not to break her arm and twisted it behind her back so that she couldn't do much.

"Say it…" Mark said playfully

"Never!" She answered; Mark chuckled a bit at her attempts to break free.

She wanted to kick her right leg backward, but his armor prevented that kind of attack. The ODST struggled, eventually breaking free with a minor fracture. She winced as a reaction, but still retaliated only this time; Mark had grabbed both her arms and pinned her to the ground. She finally gave up, no matter how much it was against her nature or training. They stopped drawing heavy breaths, some of the crowd cheered loudly.

"Getting better." Mark commented

"Yeah, but I still want to see how you do without the tin foil." She replied

"We'd have to wait until we get rescued and return to base, where ever it's been set up." Mark said, sitting down. Alyx sat beside him. They started talking once more, just to pass the time.

(_Seemingly pointless to add this but I did-__M. Fox__)_

_With Cream, Tails, and Nicole_

Cream had tried to fly like she had years ago, but the weight of the armor prevented that. Instead she had to walk around, occasionally looking back at Tails. Nicole's sensors picked up a large amount of movement, Cream saw it too. She moved whatever object she could and piled it around the communication terminal. She placed Nicole back in the terminal to send out another message.

"Firebase Bravo, come in. We have Covenant reinforcements closing in on our position, where is that pelican?" Nicole said

"Hold your position, Pelican-417 is on its way. ETA fifteen minutes."

"We don't have fifteen minutes, dammit!" Cream interjected

"This is Pelican-417; hold them off for as long as you can."

She let out a sigh of deep annoyance, a bolt of plasma whizzed passed her. Cream ducked under the stacked crate, she poked her head out to see where they were. Another bolt came and hit her, the shield absorbed the damage. She fired back at them, hearing a few bodies fall. An explosion hit the front of the crate forcing her back down.

"Hunters!" the AI called out

"How much time until evac?" Cream asked

"Roughly 13 minutes." Nicole answered, putting a timer on Cream's HUD

Cream kept firing back at the enemy, feeling somewhat powerless to just eliminate them all at once. She pushed her personal thoughts aside, focusing on her duty to her Spartan brother. She tossed a grenade into the enemy lines. Tails came around dragging himself behind another box, drawing his modified USP.40. He fired with as best accuracy he could, Nicole watched in awe as Tails fought through his own injuries. His blood-spattered appearance made him seem more terrifying than usual. Cream grabbed the Plasma Rifle and fired, knocking down shields.

"Albatross to ground team: what's your status? Over."

"Situation critical, the enemy is surrounding us."

"Okay, we're almost there, use green smoke to mark your location, over."

"Acknowledged." Cream answered, tossing the smoke behind them

The timer read 120 seconds, they kept up the fire. Tails' body fell numb again, causing him to black out. Cream's ears picked up the roar of an engine. The Pelican soared into view, firing off all its guns.

"Mow those alien bastards down! Prioritize larger ones first!" the Chief ordered

The dropship landed a few meters away from Cream, Tails and Nicole. Four other Spartans jumped out, running to them. Cream grabbed Nicole, placing her inside her own helm and picking up Tails'.

"Zack, Roy get him inside! Everyone provide covering fire!" Sara barked, everyone did as told slowly backing up toward the Pelican. Once all were onboard, the Pelican lifted off and away from the battle area.

The Chief came out of the cockpit; the Spartans snapped a salute to him. He returned the salute then focused his attention to his little brother. Tails was laid across the seat, still knocked out. Sonic's fists curled up in anger. He wanted to get back at the Covenant, but didn't show it. For now Tails urgently needed medical attention, that was his first priority.

"I assume you can provide an accurate summary of what happened Cream." The blue Spartan said, turning to face her

"I could but I think it'd be better to see the mission log recorded in our helmets."She suggested

"Hey, did anyone leave them something to remember us by?" John asked

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Roy answered, activating a detonator. Everyone turned to the open hatch, seeing a mushroom cloud form in the distance

"Overkill much?" Zack commented

"Jeez, stop being a goddamn skeptic Zack. Live a little." Roy said, pushing Zack on the shoulder

"We'll be arriving at Firebase Bravo shortly."

Cream sat down, laying his head in her lap stroking his fore-head. Everyone had forlorn faces, even though they still had their helmets. Tails stirred a bit, coughing up blood, slowly opening his eyes. His eyes wandered from the lieutenant, to the other squad members to Sonic, and finally back to Cream. He smiled weakly, almost seeing his life go before his eyes.

"Firebase Bravo, this is the Albatross: Requesting permission to land."

"Permission granted."

The Pelican's landing gear extended as it descended into the hangar, UNSC crewmen manned their stations, medics and tech engineers prepared to receive the patient and remove his armor. The bird touched down as the troops piled out, and giving Tails to the medics. They rushed him out of the hangar, Cream looked in the direction he was taken. Sally approached the group, mustering as much compositor possible. She guided them to the ops center, briefing the team of Spartans on the current situation.

"So far, we haven't seen or heard anything from the Covenant. But there is a problem, they managed to capture the Captain and one your squad-mates." Sally said, as a film started on the main screen

The film started from a normal point of view: on the user's head. The camera suddenly went sailing to the ground facing a large group of Elite Warriors and a red armored Spartan. A fight ensued, not lasting long; the Spartan was knocked to the ground. Two Elites came and hauled him off somewhere. The screen became blank.

"It only stops there, but the good news is: While hacking The Covenant Battle Network, Cortana found an enemy ship stationed on this ring. It's very likely that's where they're keeping their captives." Sally commented

"Then we need to get ready for a rescue op." Sara said

"Precisely, be ready in seven hours." Sally ordered, the Spartans left the command room to prepare for the mission.

* * *

I'm probably going to sound like an ass to ask this but, who here thinks Tails is going to die? anyone? anyone at all?


	9. The Truth and Reconciliation

_Sonic Combat Evolved _

_Chapter 8_

_The Truth and Reconciliation _

The ship rested above the plateau, Covenant troops patrolling around checking for any obscurity. Far away from the ship's gravity lift, a Pelican touched down on a cliff edge.

"The Covenant has captured Captain Keyes and are holding aboard one of their ships; The Truth and Reconciliation." Cortana said over the team comm. network

"How we supposed to get inside the ship? The corps. Issued me a rifle, not wings." A Marine asked

"There's a gravity lift that carries troops and supplies between it and the surface. That is our ticket in." Sgt. Johnson answered, as the dropship edged closer to the ground. "Go, go, go! The corps. ain't paying us by the hour."

The squad jumped out of the Pelican, checking their weapons and ammo counts. The Spartans activated their night vision; John took out a sniper rifle and walking up a cliff on the right. He crouched behind a large rock, snaking a fiber optic probe over it. Elites patrolled around the area with Jackals, Grunts fell asleep while two manned a pair of Shade turrets.

"Two turret placements, with Elites and Jackals on the ground." He reported to the squad leader

"Copy that, exterminate as many as you can before the squad moves up." Sara ordered

An acknowledgment light flickered on her HUD, sniper shots were heard soon after. _'*sigh*… I wish Mark was here, he loves long-ranged elimination.'_ Sara thought to herself; Sonic paced around rather impatiently.

"Enemy eliminated, you guys can move up." John reported; The squad of Marines and Spartans dashed forward. Sonic held a fist up, signaling for them to stop. His motion tracker detected enemies heading to their position.

"Johnson, have two of your men in those turrets. Lieutenant, you and Roy defend those guns. John provide sniper support" Sonic barked

"Yes sir!" Johnson answered "Jenkins, Wilson on those turrets, now!"

The two Marines climbed into the Shade guns, centering their sights on the path that lead forward. The two Spartans positioned themselves behind rocks close to the stationary guns; John slammed a fresh clip into his sniper rifle. The Chief pressed his back against the wall, waiting to assault the enemy squad leader. An Elite's head emerged from behind the wall; Sonic pounced on top of it. The alien pushed him back as grunts and another Elite charged into battle. The Spartans punctured the Grunt environmental suits with bullets; careful not to hit their commanding officer, the marines fired uncomfortly close to the Chief. Sonic continued to duke it out with the Elite; punching it in the gut. The Elite tackled him to the ground trying to break Sonic's block. Roy snaked his assault rifle around the Elite's neck; pulling it off the Chief. The strangling broke its personal shielding; the Elite broke the chock hold, the alien fell on all fours gasping for air. Sonic raised his boot over its head, slamming down; reducing it to a puddle of blood and skull parts sticking out of it.

"Let's move; John, you take point." Chief directed

_Inside the Truth and Reconciliation_

The brig was as boring as ever; all the fox could do was stare at the wall. They had moved Alyx to another cell in another area, and killed the other marines. The fox heard footsteps from outside his holding pin. An Elite disabled the force field; the Spartan took his chance and leapt at it. The alien side stepped, grabbing his arms; holding Mark down. Another alien approached and cuffed him. They yanked him to his feet, dragging him to another area of the ship. An explosion was heard, causing a thundering rumble. The guards dropped their cargo; Mark took his chance to flee down the hall. His captors chased after him, he ran through the ship past enemy patrols. They all gathered in the pursuit, the fox ducked behind a corner. The huge party followed, and started to engage in a fire fight. Plasma and bullets sailed through the air, Mark saw an over charged plasma bolt coming at him; he turned and held the cuffs up. The bolt struck them, making them shatter.

"That's better." He said, feeling his wrists

The Spartan crept around behind the enemy, snaking his arm around and elite's neck. The alien's neck broke easily; it tried to make a lot more noise than wanted. Mark made a quiet 'shh' sound as he gently laid the corpse on the ground.

"Marines, use your grenades!"

The fox, upon hearing this, he jumped and latched to the ceiling and crawled out of harm's way. The grenades covered the spot with smoke, blood and fire. He crawled to the darkest spot, watching for any other threat.

"All clear, check your ammo levels and let's go." Sara ordered

Mark watched the rescue team pass by, slowly letting himself down he crept up behind them. He grabbed the nearest marine, putting a hand over his mouth and dragged him back around a corner.

"Shhh, stop making so much noise!" Mark whispered into the man's ear; the man did as told but was still shaking

"Okay, can I trust you NOT to freak out?" The marine simply nodded, the fox removed his hand and turned the marine around

"Sir, I-…I didn't notice you on this mission." The marine said, snapping to attention

"I wasn't, I was here the entire time. I just need your help with something."

"Yes sir. May I ask what it is, sir?"

"I heard that some of the captives have been shipped for execution, and I intend to get them out." The Spartan explained as he led the way

--

The team stopped just before they entered the ship's bridge, they took the small amount of time they had to re-load their guns, patch each other up and take a head count:

"Is everyone here? Sound off!" the chief ordered

"Spartan-365 here." (Sara)

"Spartan-117 here." (John)

"Spartan-266 here." (Roy)

"Cpl. Wilson here."

"Sgt. Johnson here." The sarge answered with an eerie silence where Jenkins' voice should've filled

"Pvt. Jenkins, report in." Johnson called out

"Maybe he died somewhere on the ship." Roy suggested, everyone grunted in frustration

"Hold on, I'm still picking up Pvt. Jenkins' signal; give me a moment." Cortana interjected "He's still alive on a completely different part of the ship."

"How's he still living? The Covenant should've been all over him by now." Wilson commented

"It seems like he was taken by surprise when we passed through the hangar bay; it looks like he's with someone…patching through the security feeds."

A security camera's view screen popped up on their tactical displays, showing the missing marine in another fire fight with the enemy, appearing to be alone. Then the enemies slowly fell one-by-one, Sonic saw something odd about it.

"Could you rewind and pause, please?"

The screen flickered for a bit, then paused. Sonic peered at what was behind an Elite during the fight; seeing nothing he looked to the ceiling, seeing something a bit distorted. The video played in slow-mo, as the object on the ceiling de-cloaked it revealed a familiar Spartan.

"Well slap me hard and call me stupid, should've figured Mark would do something like that; but for what reason?" Roy exclaimed a bit

"Okay then Stupid, how about giving him a little call?" John said

--

Mark had got finished killing the last enemy soldier, he took the time to rest for a bit. He looked up to see Jenkins extending an extra ear piece to him. The fox took it, placing it in his left ear.

"Where the hell are you?!" Sara yelled

"On my way to the ship's execution deck…ma'am. There might be more captives there, awaiting…well you know."

"Negative, you are to return to the squad ASAP."

"I'm…*sigh* I'm afraid I can't do that quite yet." The fox answered

"You better get here or you'll be facing serious punishment."

"I don't care, I just want to see if I can save them." Mark said, closing the line

"Sir?" Jenkins asked nervously

"Let's go."

The two headed down a maze of corridors, running into a little resistance every now and then. They eventually stopped at a terminal, The Spartan hacked the system to look at a map of the ship.

"Okay, we're not too far away." He said running through a corridor

He stopped, looking around the corner he saw a pair of guards. He drew a Plasma Rifle and a plasma grenade; he looked at Jenkins who drew a human grenade. Both of them tossed them, effectively killing the guards. The two crept slowly to the door, it opened to reveal a certain echidna ODST KO'd and being prepared for execution, and four soldiers of to the side of the platform. Mark ran straight at the two Elite warriors on the platform. Jenkins came in slowly, firing his assault rifle at the platform, mainly hitting the two enemies. The Spartan got an Elite in a head lock and crushed its skull between his palms. Jenkins shot the other in its knees, giving Mark the chance to crush its brains beneath his boot. He went down to the four soldiers, releasing their chains.

"Thank god you came!" one shouted

"Yeah, thanks for the save." Another said

"State your names soldiers." Mark ordered

"Private George Gordon Haggard Jr. sir!" One spoke, he wore a snow type cap and looked like he had one too many beers

"Private Terrance Sweetwater." Another said; judging by how he looked, it was a nerd in the military

"Private Preston Marlow."

"And I'm Sergeant Samuel Redford."

"Hey, aren't you guys from B-Company?" Jenkins asked

"Yes." Redford answered

"Good, you guys get to take point." The Spartan said as he walked back to the platform

"Hey Sarge, why's there so many animals that can uhh, do the 'walking and talking'?" Haggard whispered

"Because they come from another planet than us."

"I heard that their called 'Mobians' or something like that. I also heard that they had this war that lasted centuries." Sweetwater added

"Shut up Sweetwater." Redford said

"What? All's I'm saying is; they seem more battle hardened than us."

Mark undid the chains and cuffs, releasing the ODST; which he caught in his arm. He bent his head down to her chest, checking for a pulse.

"Hey, why's he leaning over her like that? They 'lovers' or something?"

"I think he's checking for a pulse, Haggard." Marlow replied

The fox heard a faint heart beat; Alyx was alive, for the moment. He held her in a bridal fashion descending from the execution platform. Setting the ODST down against the wall, activating the comm. link that came through on everyone else's.

"Alpha two to Alpha one, do you copy?"

"This is Alpha one, what's your status? Over"

"We've managed to rescue a squad apart of 'B-Company' and an ODST. Over"

"Well that's…that's good. We have the Captain and are on our way back to the hangar, meet us there in fifteen minutes."

"Roger that, out." Mark said, killing the comm. line "Okay Redford you and your boys take point, Jenkins you cover our flank."

"Uh, I don't mean to be rude sir, but…" Sweetwater started "who died and made you leader?"

"Well I think my Spartan-II status out ranks anyone else here, plus I don't see the Captain or any other high ranking officers aside from Alyx here."

"Shut up Sweetwater, and let's get going." Redford said, leading the way

Mark had carried Alyx over his shoulders so he could at least use a side arm. The resistance in the ship was low, probably due to those rescuing the Captain. As they walked down the hall, Preston noticed a strange gun on the ground. He picked it up and saw the chainsaw attachment.

"Sir check this out, this weapon looks strange. It's got a chainsaw on it, it looks kinda weird." Preston reported, Mark stopped to look; and gave a smile

"So that's where that's been. I've been looking for that." Everyone looked at him, completely puzzled

"Excuse me, sir. 'Looking'?"

"I made this in my spare time." The fox said, taking the gun "Well, what are we standing around for? Let's get moving!"

They made their way to the hangar bay, joining in the major firefight. "Friendly's at nine o' clock!" Someone at the other side announced.

"Glad to see you guys made it. Now get aboard the Spirit dropship." Sonic ordered

"That's next to impossible sir! We're pinned down!" Mark replied

The ship's turret turned and blasted remaining enemies. The group took their chance jumping on, Bravo-One-Charlie (Marlow, Redford, Sweetwater, and Haggard) then Jenkins. Mark was last, throwing his weapon first then handing off Alyx to Sara as the ship started to move.

"Jump for it!" Roy yelled, the fox jumped landing halfway; slowly slipping away

"Gotcha!" Marlow said, pulling the Spartan into the ship. The ship raised up, turning left

"Captain, Hunters!" Cortana announced as a pair of them appeared preparing to fire

"Everyone hold on!" Keyes shouted, ramming the ship into them.

"Now let's go." He said as the ship left the hangar, and into the night. As soon as they left eye sight Roy pushed a detonator; a large explosion soon followed

"How many remembrance items you intend to leave behind?" Sgt. Johnson asked

"Until they realize their defeat."

(Hours later, at Firebase Bravo around 9:55am)

"Sir, we have an enemy dropship close-by." A crewmember reported

"Launch fighters and take it down."

"Wait, I've got a message coming through. Putting it online."

"This is Master Chief Petty Officer. Do not shoot, repeat **do not shoot**! We are aboard the Spirit dropship; request priority clearance."

"Clearance granted; welcome home Alpha team."

The U-shaped craft landed; releasing the hatches. The Captain was first to step out of the craft being greeted by the crewmen and finally met by Sally. They both walked off toward the ops center, discussing a lot of tactical things. The team stepped off; Mark had been puzzled the entire ride back about two other squad-mates.

"So, where's Cream and Tails?" He asked shyly. The other Spartans kinda froze for a few seconds, Sonic lead the fox to another section of the base. The medical section was bustling, to attend to wounded. Sonic spotted a crewman that wasn't doing anything too important. "You there." He called

"Yes sir?" The medic said, as he walked over.

"Could you take us to Miles 'Tails' Prower?" The blue hedgehog asked; the man nodded and led the two down the halls, eventually coming to a cryo-stasis area. Mark noticed a familiar rabbit exiting the room; grief plastered onto her face. She jumped, noticing the other two Spartans. "H-hello sir."

"Are you alright Cream?" Mark questioned, she just stood there for a few seconds then walked off

"What happened?"

"Tails' fighter was shot down while rescuing Cream." Sonic explained "They managed to avoid detection by the enemy in a forest area. As soon as Cream had awakened they moved to a Covenant outpost; Hunters, Jackals and Elites everywhere. They managed to secure the area long enough for pick up; Tails well…."

The two entered the room, Sonic pointed to a Cryotube that contained a familiar twin tailed fox. Mark stood on shock at the sight.

"Tails…." He whispered, soon to be replaced with frustration "didn't you guys try anything?!"

"Like what Mark? We barely escaped the enemy on our way in, the ODSTs managed to steal this compound, and pulled off a next to impossible rescue. And we barely have soldiers to fight their legions." Sonic fired back; Mark by this time was in his CO's face

"What about that machine your uncle, Sir Chuck, was working on? I know what that fatass did with it-"

"Then you already know that we can't use it."

"Yes we can, all that's really needed is-"

"Both the Captain AND the Commander would say no. End of discussion corporal." Sonic said as he began to walk away

"But sir-" The fox said, turning in the direction of Sonic

"END OF DISCUSSION." The chief warned, leaving

Mark walked to the pod; staring at the orange fox inside "GODDAMMIT!" he shouted; slamming a fist into the one on his left cracking the glass. The door slid open as Cream stepped in; she stood next to the crimson fox.

"How much did you hear?" He asked

"Everything." She answered, not taking her eyes off Tails

"Then you know what I intend to do."

"Didn't Sonic veto that already?"

"Do we both want Tails out of a metal cylinder?"

"Then you'll need some help." The rabbit said, flipping Nicole (in the memory card) between her fingers

"We leave at midnight." Mark said turning to leave; Cream nodded and followed him


	10. Minor Surgery

Firebase Bravo, Pelican Hangar

11:30pm

After 'lights out'

"Come on, let's go!" a voice whispered, running quietly along the corridor into the large room

The two figures split in two directions; one going for the dropship, the other to the hangar control console. The one at the console punched in codes to unlatch the locks almost being done when someone flashed a light on her.

"Going somewhere?"

"Just uhh…" Cream paused 'Damn it, what do I say?'

"You two weren't going somewhere, were you?"

"Hey Lieutenant, to what do we owe the honor of your presence?" Mark said, appearing to be dressed in an ODST uniform

"I would like to know what it is you two are doing."

"We were just checking if this pelican was working properly via test flight."

"Then why did I see you two stop by a weapons locker?" Alyx inquired further cocking an eyebrow

"You never know if the Covenant flyers come this far out, so we took some as a little extra defense." The fox answered, walking toward the dropship

"Then you wouldn't mind me coming with you."

"Why of course not, ma'am."

"This could be problematic…" Nicole whispered into Cream's helmet as all three boarded the dropship

-one hour later at the Pillar of Autumn's crash site--

"I thought you said it was a test flight, or is there something you aren't telling me?" Alyx asked as Mark set the ship down far from the Autumn

"Did I forget to mention a small supply run?" the fox said as he jumped out the back with a sniper's rifle. There were Covenant all over the place; the Spartan gritted his teeth

"Nicole, think you can make some sort of distraction?"

"Negative, insufficient energy levels to do it outside. I'd be able to if I was hooked up to the ship."

"Alright then…can you scramble the enemy motion trackers?"

"Affirmative, but only for a short time."

Mark got back on the Pelican; returning to the pilot seat. "Prepare to scramble their sensors on my go."

The ship lifted off the ground, moving out of site.

"Okay..now!"

The Pelican managed to slip by unnoticed, and docked in an empty hangar bay. All three passengers (A.I. with them) exited into the large room. Mark carried a sniper rifle, while the other two carried assault rifles.

"Okay, you two search for weapons and ammo," Mark ordered "I'll look for medical supplies."

The team split up to get their targets, Mark took Nicole with him.

"Nicole, access ship schematics and give me the fastest route to the med-bays." He requested

"Accessing...I got part of it. I'd have full access if I was directly connected to the _Autumn_'s mainframe." The AI replied

The fox gave a small sigh in annoyance. He decided to go to the bridge first in order to get the schematics.

-with Alyx and Cream-

The two grabbed a Warthog LRV and rolled along the service corridor. Alyx sat in the side seat twirling an unlit cigarette between her fingers.

"So, anything else I should now about why we're here?" She asked. Cream was quiet for ten full seconds, only raising the lieutenant's suspicion.

"Just a small supply run." She answered in a slightly unconvincing voice. The lieutenant saw through it though; deciding to play the 'chain of command card' "Well than, as the commanding officer, I order you to tell me the full story." she said with a smirk.

Cream gritted her teeth, debating in her own head whether to spill it or not. She parked the Warthog in a small garage near the corridor elevator. The Spartan took a deep breath concluding that she'd get her ass chewed for her actions anyway.

"Mark and I..came here to help a friend."

"Tails?"

"Yeah, kinda obvious right?"

"Yep, i'm guessing you hide him in the pelican before take off?" Alyx asked

"Yep, as soon as Mark gets the med-bay ready and we collect some parts."

The two entered the armory closest to engineering and started gathering what they assumed was needed, placing them in duffel bags.

"Mark, we got the stuff. Is your equipment ready?" Cream said on the team's comm channel

"Ready to go, Nicole activate auto turrets to cover them."

The loudspeakers indicated their activation as slots in the ceiling opened to reveal tiny machine guns. A minute afterward a small orange arrow appeared on the Spartan's HUD, indicating a nearby elevator.

_-Pillar of Autumn medical bay 12:58am_

"Try not to alert any Covenant patrols." The fox said before the comm snapped off. He walked over to cryotube that contained Tails.

The tube hissed open as Mark prepared a syringe filled with a strange liquid. He removed the helmet and injected it into Tails' neck. Then moved his hand to the orange kit's forehead as small tentacle like things pierced into the forehead.

"Okay man, what's on your mind?" He said as his own eyes closed

_-Tails' Dream_

Tails had been in his workshop up on a scaffold as he worked on the Blue Typhoon. Tools and other objects littered the wooden platform he stood on, including a small boom-box playing 'Believe in Myself' (Sonic Adventure 1 version). A small knock came from his door.

"It's open." he called, a few seconds later the door opened to reveal a small rabbit.

"Hi Tails!" she shouted across the large hangar-like room. The orange kit turned to see Cream walking in his direction. "Hey, Cream." he replied

The fox turned again to continue his work as Cream had asked what he was doing, and as usual, he went way too far into the details for anyone to follow (aside from Eggman of course). Cream smiled lightly as her hand snaked its way around to cover his mouth, followed by a small peck on the cheek. Tails froze with a light blush spread across his face.

_-Back in the real world_

The medical bay doors slid open as the two girls walked in dropping their bags next to a workbench. Mark came out of his trance like state; his fingers leaving nothing on Tails' head.

"How is he?" Cream asked as she ran her fingers through his hair

"He's dreaming, about you." He answered as he looked up at Alyx "And I assume that you already know?" the Lieutenant simply nodded. Mark arced up his eyebrow

"Why?" He asked as he went over and unzipped the duffel bags

Alyx remained silent for a few seconds. "A couple years back, my brother was hospitalized and diagnosed with a potentially fatal illness."

"And our predicament is somewhat similar to it." Mark continued for her "Alright, we'll need someone to keep look out for Covies anyway."

Mark disassembled all the weapons in the bags, keeping the parts separate. Cream monitored Tails' biosigns, and Alyx walked around just outside the door making sure that no one was there.

_Firebase Bravo 0930 hours (9:30am)_

Sonic had paced around the command center to try and vent some frustration. All the other Spartans had been up and working the terminals to try and catch footage of a missing Pelican dropship.

"I told you he wouldn't listen..." Zack said in a mono tone of voice

"Just keep looking, Zack the data's around here somewhere." John answered, minutes passed afterwards before Sara stood shouting: "Found it!"

A video pulled up on the main screen showing two figures in a Pelican hangar. The ship roared to life and left the hangar.

Sonic let out a breath of frustration and said "Who was on that ship, and where were they going?"

"Err, the crew consists of the AI Nicole, Spartans 105 and 062, and ODST Lieutenant Alyx. They were headed to the Autumn's crash site." Roy answered

"Open a channel with them, and tell them to get their asses back here." Sonic ordered

"That's not possible sir. Either the Covenant set up something to block the transmission or they're comm link has been cut." John replied. Sonic's hand turned to a fist.

"Get a dropship ready, we'll go and get them ourselves."

_Pillar of Autumn Medical Bay 1025 hours (10:25am)_

Tails had been laid on a table, knocked out as sparks flew from his right arm's socket. Mark had engineer goggles as he applied finishing touches to the robotic supplement.

"It's done." he announced as he set his tools down on the workbench. Cream resumed stroking the kitsune's head, while Mark accessed Nicole's memory core; deleting anything related to last night.

Tails eyes started to open slowly, his body felt numb. It took him a few seconds to figure out where he was. The fox sat up slowly feeling blood rush out of his head, he moved his arm onto the back of his head feeling cold steel. _'A metallic arm?' _he thought to himself

"Rise and shine sleeping beauty." Mark commented upon seeing him awake

"How long have I been out?"

"A couple days or so..come on, the Chief is gonna have our hides already. This also may give some time to test your new arm."

Tails saw he was dressed in a white sleeveless tank top and baggy military pants. He hopped of the table as the other three grabbed their weapons, and Nicole. The group moved into the corridor facing a large group of the Covenant surrounding them.

**It's been awhile since i updated this one, sorry about that i've had some tech issues recently. But the point is it's fixed, and i'm still writing ^_^ R&R.**


	11. PostSurgery Escape

The Covenant stood motionless, weapons pointed at the small group of UNSC troops. They stood motionless ready to have at it. Tails, however, was weaponless and could only stand to watch. His ear twitched hearing a loud beep, seconds later an image of himself and Mark appeared in his left eye. Between the two portraits of them was the number 141.12.

"What the hell is this?" he asked, his lips didn't even move. But his voice was still audible

"It's called a Codec Tails. Before you say anything else, it's an old piece of human technology. 21st century to be exact. This'll allow for an even more private conversation between us." Mark answered

"Okay, what about the situation at hand? We'll all be dead in seconds."

"No we won't. That arm of yours could turn this around." The red fox replied in a very confident voice "Like you, I can make weapons from spare parts but only to a certain degree. Your arm contains a W/A M6 G/GNR."

"A Spartan Laser? Aren't those still in testing?" Tails asked with mild surprise

"Let's just say I gave the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) network hell. Just lift the arm at the designated targets and concentrate. Be careful though, your laser packs enough punch to permanently offline an Elephant mobile base and you only have five shots. Also, I installed solar panels to keep the battery charged."

The air got thicker with tension. Tails raised up his arm, concentrating on his targets. The fingers folded back and tucked away in the back of his hand. A hole in the palm opened to reveal a bright red light.

"Also Tails, move the beam around for maximum effect." Mark said on the codec

"Anything else?"

"Make it count."

The codec disappeared from his eye sight. Tails arm hummed with energy. Seconds later, a huge beam of light pierced the aliens in front of him, followed by the loud sound of a sniper rifle.

"Hit the deck!" Mark shouted as he threw a plasma grenade. Soon the air above them became full of plasma and needles. Tails fired another shot into the ceiling above one of the large groups, forcing it to collapse on top of them.

The group turned to see the other group focus on something else. Cream glanced at her motion sensor as it pinged friendlies, taking a breath of relief and anticipation. As soon as the last enemy fell to the ground, a group of Spatrans rounded the corner. The group got to their feet as the other Spartans stood in front of them.

"Nice to see you aren't splattered all over the wall." Zack commented

"Stow it, Zack." Sara said sharply

"Glad to see you're back in action." Sonic said, looking at Tails. Tails simply nodded detecting some degree of aggravation. Sonic then turned his gaze to Mark, who'd had a small book in his hands writing in it with a pen.

The entire stood watching or what would happen. Mark just kept writing down things in his book.

"You need something?" The red fox smirked as he put the book and pen away, looking directly at the blue hedgehog

"You knew coming here was in direct violation of your orders."

"What are you going to do? Whine to the Captain? The Commander?" the fox mocked

"Mark, I wouldn't do that..." Alyx whispered

Sonic stepped closer to him. "Don't you _ever_ disobey me again. Is that understood?" He said as he turned to walk away

"No sir." Sonic turned saying "What was that?"

"That armor make you deaf?" Sonic turned around and started to approach the fox again. Sara quickly stepped forward putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Shouldn't we be getting back now?" She said, Sonic let out a deep breath. He looked at Mark one last time before moving on. Everyone else but Sara and Mark had moved out.

"You know I could've taken him." Mark stated as he walked by his squad lead. She grabbed him by his wrist, he turned his head to look at her.

"I know that, but he is still our superior." She let go, then continued "Just keep it in check until we get home okay."

He simply nodded as they began to catch up with the rest of them. They got to the elevator from engineering. The elevator roared to life as it ascended through the hull of the ship.

"Anyone else get the feeling we'll need to blow up the Autumn before we leave?" Roy said

"You never know, but it's the only thing with an FTL drive. Aside from the Covenant fleet of course." Nicole answered

"Nicole, do you remember anything that happened last night?" Sonic asked, Mark could feel another look from the blue hedgehog.

"Er..um...strange. I don't recall anything aside from Tails' full recovery." The A.I. answered. Mark smirked, Sonic just shook his head

The elevator came to a stop. The team moved forward into the garage looking area. Tails, Sonic, Alyx, Sara and John got in a M831 TT Warthog. While Mark, Zack and Roy jumped into a M12G1 LAAV (Gauss Warthog). Mark's ear twitched as a loud beep went off there, seconds later, an image of Tails appeared.

"You know he's gonna try to get you put through court-martial." The orange kit said

"I also know we'll need anyone we can get on this ring." Mark responded as he turned the gauss cannon as he searched for targets. Nicole tapped into whatever ship systems were available, the schematics in particular. She took a look at the road ahead via security cameras. Ghosts and enemy ground troops gathering in the hangar where their pelican was docked.

"Hostiles incoming, approximately twelve ghosts. More seem to be waiting in the hangar." she reported

"Alright!" Roy said, as Mark cocked the gauss' firing mechanism. "Finally something to blow up."

"Yeah, just don't blow up the other Hog." Zack said, being somewhat sarcastic

The two jeeps entered the next hall as they saw a swarm of Covenant ghosts fly around the corner. "Light 'em up!" Sara shouted as both sides opened fire. The gauss cannon killed most out in one shot, but more seemed to come out of nowhere. The windshields cracked and shattered from the plasma fire. They entered a large open room.

"I don't like this..." Mark said as he took down three in one shot. The

doors on the other end to close when they were a third of the way there. The sound of fuel rods echoed throughout the room as they exploded against the Transport Warthog, causing it to swerve out of control.

"It won't hold!" Sara yelled as the uncontrolled vehicle slammed into the other jeep. Both started to roll on their sides, stopping with their tires facing up.

The squad crawled out slowly, grunting in pain. The Covenant surrounded them. Plasma soon rained down on them, forcing them to the ground. Tails fired his laser at the ceiling forcing down Titanium-A blocks on top of the attacking horde. Rays of sunlight filled through the hole, shinning on the team. Mark moved to flip over the gauss hog, getting in the turret again. The squad fell back behind the vehicles.

"Anyone have a good idea?" Alyx yelled, tossing Tails an M6D pistol.

"Can't get any support, radio's jammed." Zack answered, as he shot down a couple Elites

"Any defensive systems left that we can use Nicole?"

"Negative, ninety-five of the ships' systems went offline upon landing."

"Well than, unless a miracle happens, we're on our own." Mark said

Roy shot his last rocket taking down at least three hostiles. Everyone else chucked a grenade into a random spot.

"This looks like the end guys. Been nice knowing ya." Mark said

--Firebase Bravo--

"Blue team, do you copy?" A radio op spoke, he sighed as her turned in his chair "Comms are down sir, either a radio malfunction or interference."

"Keep trying." Keyes ordered as Cortana keyed in on the base intercom

"Captain, I'm picking up a large amount of Covenant troops converging on one of the service corridors. Getting live feed now."

The main screen showed a large room, filled with smoke. Two warthogs were barely visible, one of them had been knocked over.

"Cortana zoom in on the M12G1."

"Aye, sir."

The picture soon shown Mark manning the turret whilst his teammates returned fire from behind the jeep.

"Those are our men, Captain. They won't last much longer." One of the crewmen commented

"Sergeant, round up a squad of Marines. Go get them." Keyes ordered

"Yes sir!" Johnson turned and left the ops center passing a black furred cat in the doorway.

"They won't make it in time."

Keyes turned to face the cat. "Then what do you suggest we do?"

"Look there," He pointed a finger at a brightened spot "There's a hole in the ceiling, it looks barely big enough for a Hawk to squeeze in."

"And if it's not?" The Captain asked, the cat turned to him and responded "Then we'll simply make one. Either way would cause significant damage to the Covenant."

Keyes had thought for a moment. Hawks and shortsword fighters could arrive at the Autumn in minutes, a pelican would take a lot longer...He let out a deep breath.

"Alright I'll approve the mission. Just make sure you clear the area of all Covenant forces."

The cat simply nodded and left the ops center and headed for one of the hangars. Five men and women were working on UNSC Hawks that had been painted black.

"Listen up guys and gals, we got ourselves a mission." He called, everyone snapped to attention

"What's the job this time sir?" One asked

"Some of our guys are pinned down in the Pillar of Autumn. Get ready for immediate launch." He ordered "I'll fill in the details on the way."

Everyone quickly gathered their equipment, loaded it up, and waited for their leader to give the green light. The comm. channel sounded a four toned sound. All Hawks in the hangar launched without hesitation. The comm. soon crackled once more, being someone's voice instead.

"Alright BlackCats, here's the situation. Looks like the legendary Spartans got themselves in a jam. Our job is to clear all hostile forces and clear a path for a pelican to get through."

"Rules of engagement sir?" A female voice asked

"Kill all hostiles in and on the way to the combat zone, repeat, all."

Clouds had blocked their vision, forcing them to switch to thermal vision. The cockpits windshields filtered out the colder signals, picking up large targets.

"Sir, I'm tracking a large convoy. They don't look like friendlies."A male voice called

Their leader took a look himself, seeing at least three Spirit dropships. "Looks like you're right Casper. All Hawks engage those dropships, bring them down before they can reinforce the enemy."

Their engines flared as they deviated from their original course. The fork looking ships spotted them, opening fire. They dodged as many as possible. They took shots along the sides in order to eliminate whatever cargo had been inside them. The enemy ships opened their sides to reveal troops carrying fuel rod guns.

"Take em down quick!"

A flurry of green blobs spewed from the sides, barely missing their targets. The Hawks rolled back behind each ship and fired upon the back of the enemy's cockpit. The armor became dented before finally failing as the Spirit ships began their descent to the ground.

"Yeah! Burn in Hell you bastards!"

"Calm down zero-five. Form up and follow me to the target."

"Copy that, Lead. We're right behind you."

The clouds thinned out to reveal a large ground force headed in the same direction as them.

"Our boys must really be giving them all sorts of hell if they need all this armor." BlackCat-03s' pilot commented

"Agreed Ashlyn, you take five and six and take them out. Rendezvous at the Autumn when your done."

"We're on it sir." She responded with a small amount of glee

Three of them broke formation and descended on the Covenant convoy. "Cassidy, Brooklyn on me to the target."

---

"I'm out!" Zack yelled upon his weapon 'clicking'

The battle raged on for a good hour or so. Hundreds of Elites, Grunts, and Jackals lie dead on the floor. The Spartans fired in small bursts, concentrating on one target until it died.

"Status on the comm link?" Sonic yelled over the thundering sounds of fire

"Still not picking up anything, we're officially on our own here." Tails answered as Mark jumped down from the gauss cannon "The turret is out of ammo."

It was official, they had all ran out of ammunition. Now all they could do was wait until the enemy's shots got through. Sixty seconds passed; something came in over the radio that had been barely audible due to static.

"This is BlackCat squadron leader to anyone on the ground. Anyone there?"

"That's Carlos!" Tails called out "This is Spartan Blue team, we're pinned down by heavy fire."

"Copy that Blue team, sit back and watch the fireworks."

Shadows filled up the spot where Tails blew open the roof, followed by the sound of twin turbines. Hovering before them was a UNSC Hawk painted black with BC-01 painted on the side. The chainguns on either sides began to spew out 0.50 caliber rounds. Scores of the enemy fell dead until they stopped coming.

"Well if it ain't the legendary Blue Team," The pilot said on the external speakers as the massive vehicle turned around. "I thought this place was off limits unless ordered."

"This would actually be my fault." Mark said raising his hand, laughing a bit

"Ah, I should have guessed. Well at least more good came out of it. Your ride should be here in a few minutes, suggest you get to a hangar." The pilot said shooting down the large blast door with missiles

"Copy that, Carlos. Thanks for the assist." The door crumbled as Blue team got back into the warthogs. Mark settled just below the turret, hanging onto the metal bar. The ride went on mostly undisturbed, aside from sounds of explosions. It took a few minutes for them to arrive at their destination, seeing the place lit up in gunfire. Two Hawks had engaged the enemy that had been aligned along the walls and most of the floor.

"Glad to see you made it Blue Team. Evac should arrive in a few minutes." One spoke

The Spartans took cover once more behind the Warthogs, opening fire with plasma weapons they picked up from the previous fight. Machine gun fire and plasma rained down on the Covenant's forces. The loud hum of a Pelican became audible, the ship hovered eight inches above the ground.

"Evac is here, let's go!" Sonic called out. Everyone ran to the ship as fast as possible. Mark was almost on board as time seemed to slow down as he turned to see a squad of grunts fire fuel rods at one of the Hawks. All shots connected, hitting the turbines.

"I can't hold her! I can't hold her!" The pilot screamed as the vehicle spun wildly, crashing on the opposite side

"Brooklyn! Are you there?! Brooklyn!" The other pilot called

Mark stopped for a second, than turned away from the pelican. His teammates called after him, but they had been drowned out by the firefight. He ran out to the crashed BlackCat searching for the pilot. He heard sounds resonate from the cockpit. The pilot saw him approach.

"What are you doing here? Leave me." He said coughing up blood

"No, we're all getting out of here alive." The fox picked up the mongoose on his back

"You got guts kid, almost no one finds us alive after being shot down like that. Why..?"

"A personal code of honor, and we'll need anyone who can fight to fight on this ring." Mark said as he stood behind one of the larger pillars.

The pilot was handed up as soon as they got back to the dropship. They lifted off as soon as Mark stepped on, followed by the rest of the Hawks. The crew administered morphing to stop Brooklyn from bleeding to death.

"Well I guess I'm due for a yelling." Mark said looking at Sonic, who said nothing in response.

"More or less I'd say whatever you did, was a success." One of the marines commented

"Still isn't a save from the ear full I'm going to get at the base _and_ at home." Mark responded, settling in for the rest of the ride.


	12. Promo

"It was foolish of you to even consider going there!"

Mark had stood before a council of the, at the moment, top officers of the UNSC. Consisting of Master Chief Petty Officer Sonic, Commander Sally, Captain Jacob Keyes, Major Antonio Silva, and 1st Lieutenant Carlos.

"I thought it a more profitable gamble." Carlos said, swiveling around in his chair "We saved ourselves one supply run and a Spartan is back on their feet."

"It doesn't matter, he still went against orders." Silva objected

"May I remind you that one of your ODSTs assisted them, leaving her post?" Sally commented. Silva grunted turning his hand into a fist.

"People please, let's here what our defendant has to say." Keyes commanded. The room fell silent, all eyes diverted to the crimson colored fox

Mark cleared his throat. "With all due respect, I did what I knew was right. In our current condition, we need anyone we can get."

"That may be true, but it still does not excuse the fact you went against your superior."

"Fully understandable, Commander, I will accept whatever consequences my actions bear. But would you have found it easy to see Tails encased in an icy coma?"

Sally leaned back in her chair. The fox had a point, morale among the troops was considerably low but rose upon hearing of the successful missions performed by Spartan-IIs.

"We would've reached a decision on what to do about it. You however-" Sonic started

"Acted and reached a solution faster. With the current situation, there's little to no chance that a solution would've been made without the voyage home complete." Mark interrupted

"_took _things into your own hands."

"But by acting on his own, he has saved two lives." Carlos commented

"One life is not equal to the millions already lost Lieutenant."

"Yes, but perhaps by doing what he did, possibly saved an entire planet." the cat replied

"You're just showing favoritism because one of your pilots lives." Silva accused

"If only that were true. How would you react if this courageous soldier had risked himself to save one of your shock troopers."

"That's already happened once." Silva muttered

Captain Keyes sat back and listened to the conversation go back and forth. Mark could tell that the man was thinking just by glancing at him. Keyes considered a great deal of things relating to this current trial. Mark's CSV recored was the most 'decorative' out of all Spartan-IIs. The Captain had reached a decision.

"Alright, that's enough squabbling." He said as he stood

"Given the evidence for and against Spartan-062, I've made my decision. He will remain on active duty, as we _will_ need any and all soldiers we can muster. This case will be revisited once we make it of this ring, and get back home. Meeting adjourned."

Mark bowed slightly before leaving the room and heading for the barracks. Silva, had obviously not liked the Captain's decision but had to live with it. In the barracks, all the other Spartans (except for Tails and Cream) had stood around while normal marines had flowed in and out. They could only stand and wait for an outcome. Their fur had been lighter than usual due to lack of sun light. When Mark had finally arrived, everyone sensed his presence immediately.

"I'm still on duty." he said before anyone asked "Until we get home; this issue will be looked at further there."

Everyone let out a small sigh of relief, and started to move around. Mark left the room and headed outside. He looked out in the direction of the Autumn, playing back the last few hours in his head.

_Firebase Bravo: Engineering Section_

Sparks flew as Tails welded a metal hatch down. Cream moved her hands accordingly so as not to be burned. The two had spent time making improvements on Tails' new metal appendage.

"Okay, let's try it now." Tails said as Cream set up a target range

The fingers became straight as the wrist started to rotate, speeding up as bullets spewed from the finger tips. The arm fired in three second intervals. The bullets tore through the paper bouncing off the wall beyond it.

"Alright, that should do it. One more test to run and it'll be ready." Tails said as the arm stopped rotating.

Cream set up another target and moved to stand next to the fox. A small panel in the wrist of Tails' metal arm rose up to reveal two dart sized rockets. One of them launched and left a small trail of smoke. It stuck to the sheet metal giving a high pitched beep seconds before the tiny explosive detonated.

"Looks like you still got it. With one arm I might add." Cream said as Tails reattached his arm.

"What do you think the Captain said at that meeting?" He asked as he moved to work on something else

"He probably let it slide; that is until we get home. If we ever do."

"We'll get home somehow. Just gotta keep our spirits up, anyway possible." He glanced at a clock "It's time for lunch."

--

The mess hall was filled with chatter between friends and squad-mates. Tails and Cream sat with their fellow Spartans, two had been absent from the group. Mark and Sonic had not shown up at the table. Tails looked around spotting Mark sitting alone at a different table with his hands folded beneath his chin. He started to get up, stopping upon seeing Sonic approach the red fox. Tails tried to listen in on them but couldn't from other chatter going on. A minute later Mark got up and followed him out. Tails turned to face his plate and noticed that everyone else was watching too.

"What were they saying?" Roy said as he nudged the fox's elbow

"I don't know, to many people talking at once."

"It's their business anyway." Zack commented as he continued to eat. Everyone else continued at a reduced rate, wondering what Sonic and Mark had to talk about

-In a near by hallway-

"You need something sir?" Mark said, leaning against a wall as Sonic stood in front of him taking a deep breath.

"Extend your hand."

Mark did as told. Sonic took out a small black box and placed it in his hand. The fox arched an eyebrow, and opened it. The box revealed a golden oak leaf, the insignia of a Marine Corps. Major. Mark stared at it in confusion.

"The Captain and Commander Sally had a discussion after the meeting. They decided to give you a um.. large promotion." Sonic explained "They also want you to lead the next operation; according to Cortana, there's a map-making machine on an island surrounded by water."

"I assume your gonna tell the others."

"Yep. They, and a couple marine squads, are going to be placed under your command." The two exchanged salutes, Sonic walked back to the Mess Hall. Mark continued to stare at the medal. He let out a small sigh and walked in the opposite direction.

-Mess Hall-

The doors slid open as Sonic stepped into the room. He saw his SPARTAN squad mates looking at him out the corner of their eyes. He stood at one end of the table as their attention to him.

"What was that about?" Tails asked

"Well, Mark got promoted to a Major." He answered

"How, is it, that he gets promoted after going against orders?" Zack questioned

"You wanna know, take it up with the Captain or the Commander. All I've been told is that he gets the rank, and that he's in charge of the squad now, but he stills answers to me." Sonic explained, taking a seat

"You guys also have a new mission, so be ready within the hour." The blue hedgehog said as he got up and left

-With Mark-

The fox had stood outside staring into the distance. He occasionally glanced at his medal, still not knowing why he got it. Memories of his military career flooded back. He concentrated so much on his stroll down memory lane that he didn't hear someone approach. She stopped right next him.

She heard him mumble "Sing with me, sing for the years, sing for the laughter, sing for the tears." She listened as he went on. He eventually came to a stop realizing he had company.

"What was that song?" She asked

"Something my dad played on his stereo when I was little. Y'know, before the Spartan stuff. It was 'Sing for the Moment' by a man who called himself Eminem."

"Must be an old one because I've never heard of it." She said chuckling a bit

"Yep, so what are you doing here Alyx?"

"It's almost time for your mission briefing. I just came to wish you good luck...sir." Mark placed his hand on her shoulder and said "Please, don't call me 'sir'" She smiled, giving him a hug. It had surprised him, Mark, instinctively returned it.

"Good luck anyway."

She let him go and he walked inside the compound. She turned and stared into the distance smiling.

Mark walked into the ops center seeing that he had been the last to arrive. A hologram of an island was projected into the center of the room.

"Well now that you're here, we can finally get this briefing underway." Mark ignored the comment and stood next to his team

"The target is what the Covenant call 'The Silent Cartographer'. Spartan Blue team will land here," Sally said as she pointed a spot on the highest point on the island "and scout the area before our attack force moves in."

Holograms of dropships appeared and landed on the beach. Soldiers poured out onto the beach attacking hostile forces.

"Once a beach-head has been established, Echo 419 and Echo 206 will drop off two Warthogs. Spartan Red Team will move to secure the target, eliminating all enemies that stand in their way." Sally continued as the hologram followed what she said "Hawks and Short-sword bombers will be on station to provide air support."

"Spartan-062 will have full tactical command over the entire mission. Now move out!" Everyone stood and saluted before leaving the room. Mark turned to his team members.

"Tails and Cream, you two are on recon, everyone else will be with me."

The newly selected Blue Team members nodded and left for their mission. Zack and Roy left as Mark stopped Sara, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm probably going to need you more than anything on this mission.

You know that." He said looking her directly in her eyes, albeit, through the armors helmet.

"I'll do my best sir."

"Just don't die on me Lieutenant."

Sara left as Mark turned back to the hologram and ran multiple simulated outcomes. Non to his liking he turned and left to get his equipment ready for the mission.

**A/N: From this point on, I'll try to stay with the main story of the game. R&R**


	13. Cartographer

**Sorry i haven't updated recently, I got preoccupied with some stuff. But here's the next chapter. (Posted at 3:00am)**

**_Warning: This chapter contains sexual innuendo U HAVE BEEN WARNED!_**

Pelicans roar into view headed toward a large island. It had been surrounded by a sea that stretched into the horizons. Mark stood looking out toward the body of water.

"Blue team give us a situation report over." Sally requested via the team's radio

"The enemy is still unaware of our presence. Same goes for the strike package..wait." Tails increased the magnification of his sniper rifle "There's an enemy dropship leaving the area. It also looks like they've made fortifications on the beach."

"This is Echo 419, we are five minutes away from the drop zone."

"Okay people remember the plan, no heroics." Mark said with a slight edge

"We're approaching the LZ, it's gonna be hot! Get set to come out swingin'. Touchdown! Hit it, marines!"

"Go! Go! Go!"

The strike team charged toward the Covenant, tucking and rolling to cover. Puffs of dirt leaped into the air in synchronous with the weapons fire that created them.

"Sara, Zack move up! Blue team we need support now!" small lights flicked in Mark's heads-up display seconds afterward

Sounds of sniper fire pierced the air that had soon been replaced with screams of death.

"We got 'em on the ropes! Advance!" Sgt. Stacker yelled as he charged into the open soon being followed by fellow marines

"Area's secure. Ready for Warthog deployment." Cortana reported. Foehammer came into view once more with the requested vehicle and left after releasing it

"John." Mark said turning to the seven foot tall man "Take the el-tee and Roy with you. Secure the Cartographer. Zack and I will stay here just encase the enemy launches a counter offensive."

The three of them silently acknowledged their order. John took the driver seat while Roy rode shotgun, leaving Sara with the chain-gun.

- -

Tails watched the warthog glide across the grassy sand sniping enemies as the need arose. Cream busied herself with a Covenant communication terminal. The scree flashed 'SYSTEM LOCKOUT' repeatedly. She found a small panel just below the keyboard. She quickly rearranged wires until the screen gave a blue luminescent glow.

"That was fast." Tails commented still keeping watch over red-two

"I've watched you do it plenty of times." She replied as she proceeded to hack the computer itself. Tails chuckled a bit "Don't tell me I'm starting to rub off on you."

"Maybe." Cream continued to search for something useful. She eventually found a file labeled 'XX'. She called Tails over as she opened it. Seconds later pictures of what looked like their enemy appeared, but in rather..'odd' posses. Tails, being as smart as he was, quickly realized what they were. A sudden feeling they hadn't felt in years came rushing back. The two of them tugged madly at their helmets, barely managing to remove them, large amounts of bile flew from their mouths.

"That..*pukes* is the sickest shit I've _ever _seen." Tails said in a hoarse voice, his hand slammed down on the console bringing up a map of the island. Some areas had red dots on it others were red.

"Well, at least the trip to alien porn land wasn't a total waste." Cream lifted her head to see the map "Spartan blue team to base, looks like we found a map of the island. Transmitting now."

"Good work, now we know where they're hiding." Another voice soon followed: "Red-two here, we've secured the building but the path into the facility is blocked."

"Copy Red-two, there's a security facility that you can access from the interior of the island."

"Got it, command. Moving out."

"Be advised we are picking up enemy reinforcements inbound to the island."

"Marines move to the Cartographer building. Carlos take your Hawks and intercept the enemy before they arrive." Mark ordered through a small amount of static

-interior of the island-

The Spartans rushed forward into a heavily shaded area having recently dispatched a pair of hunters and jackal squad. An enemy ambush party sprang forward from behind the trees, forcing them down behind the rocks.

"Man, they just don't give up do they." Roy complained as he returned fire

"I thought you liked blowing things up."

"Don't get me wrong ma'am, it's just that there's so damn many of them."

The rain of plasma started to become slower. John chucked two grenades. Explosions soon followed alongside enemy death howls. The trio advanced onto a metal over look exterminating a grunt squad. They proceeded into the facility encountering and soon dispatching another pair of hunters. Shortly after, they located the security terminal.

"Give me a sec to override the security." Cortana said as the hologram spun a bit "Done."

"Mayday, mayday! Dropship Bravo 22 taking enemy fire! Repeat! We are under heavy fire and are losing altitude!"

"Back to the surface quickly!"

The team rushed back to the previous room, encountering cloaked Elites. The fight was short lived as the Elites did not have their shields active. Reaching the surface, they gazed upon Bravo 22's crash sight.

"Red-two to base, Bravo 22 is down. No survivors."

"Copy that red-two. Stay out of sight and get back to the cartographer."

The three ran off in the direction they came. Not one looking back at their fallen comrades. The ride back had them tense expecting heavy resistance. The came into view of friendlies in defensive positions around the building. The vehicle came to a grinding halt.

"Security disabled sir." Sara reported

"Good, take John and secure the target. Roy we'll need you out here to help with anti-air."

They gave a slight nod then dispersed. Sara and John sprinted into the lower levels of the compound. They stopped at a darkened corner, Sara peeked around the corner and saw an Elite using a terminal. She turned to John holding up her index finger then pointed around the corner. John holstered his weapon and drew a combat knife. Proceeding around the corner he slit the aliens throat. Sara came into the room.

"You go left, I'll go right."

They had been spotted as the doors hissed open. Both had chucked a plasma grenade they acquired earlier. Puffs of super heated plasma and blue clouds consumed anyone close to them. Any remaining enemies fell easily afterward. Sara took a small shaft down while her partner took the ramp. More fighting ensued as they took on a much larger group.

"Blackhawks to ground teams, you've got four enemy dropships headed your way."

"Roger Blackhawks, are you able to assist?"

"That's a negative, we got hit too hard when we engaged them. See you back at base."

"Hurry up red-two, we're running out of time."

The two Spartans charged past the remaining Covenant troops. They eventually worked their way into a room that contained a small triangle. John attempted to pick it up only to turn invisible.

"I'll distract the guards in the next room while you get to that map."

Sara charged into the room drawing the enemy's attention while John went around.

"There's the cartographer." Cortana said as her courier activated "Analyzing...The control room is here. That structure appears to be some sort of temple or shrine, if I've interpreted this correctly. (Pause) Interesting. A shrine is an unlikely place to put such a significant installation."

"We've got what we came for, lets go."

John flanked any remaining enemies attacking the el-tee. The two sprinted at full speed to the top just as a pelican arrived.

"Come on, lets go!" Mark yelled seeing the two emerge from the building

He gave them covering fire as the ran into the open and onto the dropship. Both Spartan teams had been present, the ship lifted off as soon as Mark stepped in.

"Let's get moving. Foehammer. Here are coordinates and a flight plan I've worked out."

"But, Cortana...these coordinates are underground."

"The Covenant did a thorough seismic scan. My analysis shows that Halo is honeycombed with deep tunnels, which circle the whole ring."

A structure opens up to reveal a hidden tunnel beneath the surface as Echo 419 got close.

"I hope your analysis is on-the-money, Cortana. This Pelican won't turn on a dime."

"Look on the bright side, Foehammer. The last thing the Covenant will expect is an aerial insertion from underground."

**Don't think about the alien thing for too long..I certainly didnt R&R**


End file.
